The volume HUD continues to lack any innovation from Apple with each passing release of iOS. It's put smack in the middle of the screen, overlaying everything and making watching videos or playing games more of an annoyance than anything.
There has been a truck load of jailbreak tweaks released in the past that aimed to fix this issue by relocating the volume HUD to the top of the screen, and a new free release called ByeByeHUD by midkin joins that ever-expanding list.