marcusescano

I'm in the centralisation camp but instead of moving things to the bottom of the screen, I use alpha transparency to trade off clutter with quick access to information.

Attached two screenshots to illustrate:
1) In party, in combat (outdated action bar positioning);
2) Solo, in combat (action bar closer to centre; shows a debuff on me).

Screens are from my warrior alt but I use the same setup for all characters. I'm a keyboarder using mostly default keybinds.

When I play warlock my attention is mostly on the dot timer (centre/right). When I play warrior my attention is mostly on the action bar (below centre). When I play priest my attention is mostly on Grid (lower centre/left) and the party frames (for pets).

Generally my attention will flit between the aforementioned focus area, the immediate playing field, my health and mana/rage bars, Grid (checking debuffs, health & aggro), my debuffs, threat meter, dot timer, trinket bar (checking cooldowns), and the "Here & now" chat window.

(This chat window fills the space between the trinket bar and the action bar. It consist of the party channel, yells, tells, whispers and emotes, including mob emotes.)

Buffs, debuffs, and dot timers expand upward. Grid expands left for raids.

On my warlock, pet frame is directly left of my unit frame, pushing Grid further outside. Pet bar replaces the class bar shown here.

Party pets are to the left of the party member, target to the right, debuffs above, buffs below. I'm not happy with my party frames. Keeping the portraits is an indulgence.

When I'm guilded, the guild channel is in its own window bottom centre of screen.

Cast bars aren't shown, but my cast bar overlaps the trinket bar and top of the Here & now chat. Target cast bar is above centre. Both cast bars are tall & wide, very obvious when present.

Attached Thumbnails

   

 

levk

Just out of curiosity, why do some of you insist on displaying party or raid as DPS classes? Sure it's convinient to get an idea of how things are going, but really you don't need it displayed all the time. I don't know if grid or any other raid frame mod has a feature like this, but it'd be nice to have a button to toggle show/hide the whole thing. The only frames I'd have as DPS are my own, target, target's target, focus, focus' target, and main assists and their targets during raids.

I play on a reasonably small monitor - 19" - and I actually felt I had to enlarge most stuff because it's small enough by default I'd have trouble finding important information quickly - for example finding health deficit of my target. My solution to the space problem has been to simply display a lot less stuff. I don't have any buttons, everything is keybound - I use a cooldown bar mod for cooldowns. I don't have party frames - use grid for everything (it's quite a gem), frames other than grid are my own, target, target's target, focus. I don't display combat log in a separate frame, but mods filter out everything that doesn't deal with myself so I always know how I died. Ofcourse I don't display silly stuff liek the menu bar, bags, keychain, whatevs.

Some of the buff mods became quite elaborate but they take quite a bit of screen space. While it's very nice to have bars for some buffs - SnD comes to mind - a huge bar for prayer of fort is a waste of space. I haven't messed with any of them, is it possible to only have bars for whatever buffs/debuffs you want specifically and can I place them separately?

 

Imba

there is one thing that stops me from putting unitframes at the bottom of the screen, its mostly marking targets... i just cant help my self without making angry that i have to slide mouse up and down to mark all the targets... thought its easyer to track everything if i have them at the bottom so well... any ideas how to solve this?

 

chase

Key bind marking targets. Numpad works well for this as you usually do not have these keybinded already. (long long reach) Since you are (usually) out of combat marking things it easy. (0 clear 1 star 2 circle ....)

After reading this thread I think I will tab my comat log. I usually only read it to find who/what killed me anyway.

Oh and I highly recommend geist to clean up rarely used spells off your toolbar or being visible at all. I just wish it had more slots as I still can't remove most of my buffs. (ports/conjuring eating most of my geist space)

 

shieldb

I run some raids and help run others, it's great to be able to glance at the raid and know who didn't use healthstones/potions/bandages after a particular boss ability, if a shaman actually did get rotated in for bloodlust yet, is anyone in the raid at low health and sitting there for some reason, etc. Feral druids have an innervate and battlerez, dps warriors have intervene, warlocks may need to combat soulstone someone, etc. This doesn't apply to every class/spec but a lot of classes have situational moves where being able to quickly click target someone vs. /target Somedude may make a difference.

ElkBuffBars on wowace allows you to set up buff/debuff filters by name if you want to cut down what you're displaying, I'm not sure about others.

 

◊ Malan

I know one thing that was brought up awhile back in the old UI design thread was the idea of only showing buffs when you *needed* them. Has there been any advance in that area? Specifically the addon would need to be aware of "I'm in a party/raid with a druid/priest but no mage, and I'm missing MotW and Fort" and then display the appropriate icons. Because really, once I have Fort, I don't really care that its ticking down. I only need to know when its expired to ask for it again.


Also, if you are going to mention a particular addon in the future, please provide the URL to it so that we don't have to figure out which of the 4-5 major addon sites are hosting it.

Vyktianity already has over 75 billion followers. The first verse in his book "Gift of the Wild" is "In the beginning Vyk cast lifebloom and then maul."

 

◊ Kyth

Power Auras could conceivably work for that, if it understood the concept of "I'm in a raid."

Right now I use it to remind me to re-cast fel armor.


It can be very relevant how many other members of your class are alive/dead.

But for me, I mostly use it for people who need summons, as if I'm summoning a lot of folks inside an instance, typing "/target blahblah" over and over gets tiresome.

(I wish Prat's aliasing function still worked. I miss how EQ let you truncate commands to unique prefixes, so /tar would work for /target.)

 

RTM

I've probably spent more time futzing with my interface than playing the game. Here's what I'm currently running with:

Link (~250kb)

It's your standard Ace'd interface with a few minor differences:

**Bartender3 bar paging/fading heavily utilized- ctrl flips the top bar to a potion/food/etc bar, shift flips the bottom bar to another row of skills (effectively providing shift+1 through = keybindings), a profession/mount bar shows on mouseover to the far right of the screen. Keeps things from getting cluttered.

**IceHUD player/pet + PitBull target frames center screen. Both disappear when nothing is targeted or I have full health/mana, giving a nice clean viewing area when riding around. I REALLY like this setup and always come back to it after trying other configurations. Before I tried IceHUD I had my player & target frames to the right and left of my character, which left one hanging out there in the middle of the screen when tooling around. Totally unacceptable.

I moved the map to the bottom left for symmetry purposes a few days ago and am still getting used to it. The tracking icon is mostly hidden, not sure how that will work out for me.


I try to keep things as functional and unobtrusive as possible while still keeping in the spirit of the game, if that makes any sense. I like the art associated with the default UI and have messed around with combinations of Skinner, XArt, and eePanels textures. One day I accidentally hid my interface and realized how much screen real estate I was hiding, and how much more immersive the game was, so I ditched them. I realize it's personal preference, but I don't see how people can play with huge black bars across the bottom of the screen blocking a good third of the game view. WoW is beautiful! You can't appreciate just how orange Durotar is if you're blocking most of the screen!

 

• Necrotoid

I'm not sure if you're using this just as an example, but /tar playername works just fine in WoW.

DOT and rot.
Travian: Phased Weasel, -144 | 61, Damascus.

 

◊ Malan

A viewport like Skinner is not "blocking" anything. Its actually resizing the rendered game world to fit a smaller area at the same resolution. In your screenshot for example, your action bars are "blocking" part of the gameworld. If something was underneath them in the game you would have to reposition your camera or move your character to click or see it. In my UI, I have a viewport area where my action bars sit, and very little of my UI exists in the actual rendered area of the game world, so I have full view and access to anything in the world without the UI getting in the way of it.

Now, "panels" are a whole different matter and yes, those are just overlapping the game world and are for nothing other than epeen aesthetics. ("Look at my pretty borders!")

RE: Power Auras. I use this actually, and it has no way to determine if you are in a party or raid, let alone whether or not a buffing class is in that grouping. All it can tell is "Am I missing (or have) buff XYZ?" and if you are, it will display that icon ALL the time. (And I don't care if I'm solo and don't have fort)

Vyktianity already has over 75 billion followers. The first verse in his book "Gift of the Wild" is "In the beginning Vyk cast lifebloom and then maul."

 

Taja

Im always trying to design with combat in mind aswell. Ive only got 2 bars visible with buttons. 1 with 12 cooldown spells, the other one with quantity items (mana gems, pots, bandages etc). Cooldowns are going from long to short to long e.g. 10 sec 9 sec 5 sec 3 sec 2 sec 3 sec 5 sec 9 sec 10 sec. All other stuff I use is keybinded and put on visible. To not have the range problem I use 3 extra buttons above my target for the appropiate spec. e.g. pyro/fireball/scorch.

a good way to get all combat info has yet to come for me. Casting bars of different targets, old targets, in range targets, cooldowns all at once has been to much still.

 

Athinira

My favorite UI so far, made with Discord Art and Unitframes using the Hellslayer Graphics:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...107_181549.jpg

In addition my own version of Alienware, though i discarded it becuase it was clumsy:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...Alienware3.jpg

Basic information of my opinion of a good UI:
- Looks aren't everything. I personally like pimpimg my UI with hot graphics, but i also went away from that kind of stuff later more or less and went for functionality.
- Should not be clumsy. A great overview is a MUST in my opinion. My second screenshot is a goood example, its taking way too much space which is also why i discarded it.
- Party frames should be in the upper part of the screen. Splitting your concentration works better when staring on something on the top of the screen and at the same time look down instead of staring at something down and looking up. Both my UIs keep this rule in mind, Party frames and target frame in the upper part of the screen.
- Graphic elements should NOt make your eyes bleed :/

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http://druid.wikispaces.com
The Druid Wiki is currently outdated and is scheduled for a major WotLK overhaul. If you are looking for information on druids, i would suggest browsing these forums for now.

 

◊ Malan

This is exactly what you were told NOT to do in the OP. Try going back and actually reading the thread I know its a lengthy two pages so far. There's a whole seperate thread (hell there's 2 of them I think) for doing nothing but posting a screenshot and boosting your epeen.

Vyktianity already has over 75 billion followers. The first verse in his book "Gift of the Wild" is "In the beginning Vyk cast lifebloom and then maul."

 

Wixi

Ok this is the 1st time i've felt obliged to post, as i feel UI's are an integeral part of the enjoyment of the game.

I enjoy maximising my screen space and making sure everything is available, whilst ensuring its tidy.

Here is a screen of my latest UI:

UI Screenshot

This isn't quite the final article, i have tweaked it a bit since (Like actually putting skills on my buttons!)

The Potion's and bits in the middle have gone now however!

Where the damage meters are in this picture, have been replaced by SWStats, however i have them hidden most of the time, and i utilise the space there for other buttons. With SWStats background set to Opaque, its still perfectly easy to read.
A great way to further maximise things is to have a bar which only shows on a key press or mouse over for less common items like buffs, calling pets, creating health stones/mana gems etc.


My FuBar now autohides at the top, to further maximise screenspace.

My group frames are in the lower left hand corner and they fill up in a square shape, and they stay level with the top of the rest of my frames. When i'm in a raid, a Grid layout appears in that space instead.

Also Omen is only there for testing purposes, i have KTM on the rest of the time, usually in the minimap area, or in between Grid raid frames and my main centre 'console'.

The main chat frame is for Guild/Raid/General, i also have a 'Spam' tab for Trade, Local Defense and other channels.

Back towards the original point of the thread however, i think the centre console with buttons either side is so common due to practicality. To keep all the information in one small area reduces the need for your eyes to be bouncing all round the screen trying to keep track of your target, who its running after, where your health pot is, checking if you have x buff whilst trying to cast Y. Having tried a slightly more 'off the ball' ui where data was split into multiple parts of the screen (can't find a SS sorry), it honestly gave me a headache trying to take in all the information.

I think a common mistake in a UI is having too much information. Yes certain roles in a raid need to have a lot of information available, like Raid Leaders, however, mister average joe, doesn't. Information is definately a valuable tool, and can greatly aid your efficiency, however too much is definately a poison. It can easily distract you from your primary role, and i'm guilty as charged for that. I no longer have all kinds of Raid tracking tools, i really don't need to know how much mana that warlocks have, or little things like that. A simple raid status of "DPS Mana, Healer Mana, Raid Health" is usually sufficient if you really need to know.

Another big mistake is over complicating things. K.I.S.S your UI, just Keep It Simple Stupid. Do you really need 4 text boxes? or 17 bars popping up flashing warnings at you when your Noggenfogger elixir cooldown is up? For some classes, and the only one i can really think of here is a rogue, i figure a cooldown timer will be useful for tracking multiple cooldowns, but i think thats only either as a visual guide for timing things, or for a keybinder. What gain do you get from having 6 bars on your screen saying somethings ready in 1m46s? Surely its just distracting clutter?

A big issue for me is having a low memory and cpu usage UI, as this will further maximise the game experience. For instance mine sits at about 32mb usuage in full raid mode, although its slightly higher in the screenshot there as i had auctioneer and all its bloated extras running in the background.

 

Randor

Actually, there's so much extraneous information in those screenshots, they should serve as an example of good ideas gone overboard.

http://homepage.mac.com/randmiranda/...er/randman.jpg
This is a computer-generated message and needs no signature.

 

◊ Malan

It would seriously be a good idea if people would refrain from posting screenshots. Post a link to it, but using the img tags is only going to attract more "hai guyz here's my UI" posts.

Vyktianity already has over 75 billion followers. The first verse in his book "Gift of the Wild" is "In the beginning Vyk cast lifebloom and then maul."

 

Mem

A good UI is foremost dedicated to provide all informations needed. I tend to build a UI oriented for my main character, all twinks (if I play one) have to use the same framework (due to my lazyness ) even if the setup is not optimal.
I also tend to bloat my UI after a certain time after which I tend to review it and trim the fat (I should do this tonight)

Stuff that I really need as a tank:

- a good combat log mod. If you die, you need to be able to tell, what happened. Eavesdrop does this in a perfect way. I have quite a large window for it because sometimes I glance in the lower right corner in order to check, how the fight is going (and why I did loose so much health if I missed the message in SCT or I don't get enough rage - Eavesdrop is my main tool to get a quick estimate how to react to an unknown mob).

- good bars with cooldown count enabled. If you play a class like a rogue where your important CDs are longer, you might work with hidden bars and a cooldown bar mod. I cannot do this with my warrior honestly Redding und blueing out of the buttons is a must have nowadays for me.

- a good but small raidframe mod - grid was to large, to unyieldy for me, so I went back to good old perfect raid which is imho the best you can get for nonhealing classes. - in a nonraiding situation I use aguf or pitbull as most do here (and I do blend them out in a raid, like the op proposes, I just don't need them there). I also color after class (which quite a lot of folks don't do since it can be a bit obstrusive.

- I don't care for fancy optics as long as I don't feel disturbed by felt "imbalances". I used the photek UI mod for 6 months or so but after swapping back to a homegrown packet I don't miss the optics, prefering to know the ins and outs of my stuff. It also helps to keep the UI rather slim.

- KTM is also an important source of information. Though I tend to clutter my most important addons on the bottom, this one is rearranged every time, depending on how many MT targets are deployed and where I can afford to move an additional window without loosing the oversight. Its not perfect, but then, again, I play on 1280 x 1024 which isn't comparable to those widescreen monitors.

- chatframes: I often used more than one but nowadays I only have one tab which is in the untermost lower left corner (also the transparency of the background is set to solid black). Its very conservative but works for me.

One idea mentioned here I like and will probably test: my fourth bar is atm dedicated to consumables and profession/mount stuff - I might add a second page here in order to make the setup more flexible. It might even enable me to drop one visible row...
I am also looking for a smaller alternative for EBB - I like it, but, honestly the information given by the mod don't justify the size of the frame imho. Scaling it is not an option for me, if I reduce the size of the frame by a significant margin, they become uncomfortable for me.

General arrangement of the frames: bars are always on the bottom centre, above them are my unit frame and the whole target and target's target stuff because this is the most important stuff for me. Above them are the boss timer bars as well as my chronometer bars (which are an aspect which I am not happy about atm. Sometimes I have different bars overlaying each other which really clutters the screen.)
Group/raidframes are on the left (having them on the top left my screen looking compressed). Buffframe on the right. Which leads to a kind of U-shaped UI. Which works for me very well because I tend to get a kind of tunnel vision anyways when gaming, Interestingly I cannot use a HUD effectively, since I prefer to have clean unobstructed view in the middle of the screen.

Hm, instead of posting a link I just described how my UI looks...my bad, but I hope you will understand the basic philosophies I adhere to when redoing my UI. I will add a link to a screenshot after work.

 

Athinira

I agree, edited it to links. My apologies. Also added a few ideas i generally design my UIs around to provide my opinion.

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http://druid.wikispaces.com
The Druid Wiki is currently outdated and is scheduled for a major WotLK overhaul. If you are looking for information on druids, i would suggest browsing these forums for now.

 

Cel

I have skinner panels for the reason that it stops contrast issues when I look down at things I need to know. It's not so much for looking cool, it's more so it gives something for information to rest on so that I can read quickly. I suppose I could do this with viewports, I hadn't really tried that before, but it's not only "epeen" :P.

Example:



Which is easier to read?

"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell

Alpha is recruiting... go go.

 

Wixi

I feel there is no need for 1 large skinner frame at the bottom.
I like the flexibility of eePanels to be able to make mulitple and resize, layer and play with. However saying that i haven't played with skinner panels for a while now.

I guess i don't like covering up the entire lower portion of my screen if i don't have to.

 

Cel