I like how the Witcher series does it; potions are a big deal. You don't just empty them down your throat in an attempt to outdo the enormous amounts of blood your losing to the enemy's attacks, you carefully prepare them yourself from ingredients you've learned about, then make a special point of drinking them before a fight.
It was also cool seeing how Square Enix depicted the potions in the Final Fantasy next-gen tech demo. The character drank the potion after being shot, it seemed to have a horrible effect on her as she writhed on the ground with the bullets emerging from her body and dropping to the ground. It seemed quite a miraculous thing, and quite strange, as opposed to just going glunk and adding more red to your health bar.
