Reader UI of the Week: Metzerott
by Eliah Hecht 
Jun 15th 2009 at 3:00PM
Reader UI of the Week is back! Each week WoW.com will bring you a fresh look at reader submitted UIs. Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send your screenshots, along with info on what mods you're using, to readerui@gmail.com.
This interface, by Metzerott, is one of the more unusual I've seen. With 90% of the submissions I get featuring rectangular unit frames towards the bottom, a large bottom panel studded with action buttons, and a customized mini-map moved to the middle of the bottom, it's nice to see something a little different. Well, it still hits the last point, but two out of three ain't bad.
More importantly to me, it's very minimal. It covers less of the screen than any interface I've seen recently, including the default UI. I'm going to guess that the left unit frame is the player, the right is the target, and the small user frame to the upper-left of the target frame is target-of-target.
Up at the top-right you can see some ElkBuffBars, and there's a soulstone timer at the right under the zone map. The minimap has been Sexy-fied a little bit, and below that you can see the zone name, the framerate, the current coordinates, and a percentage that I'm going to guess is durability.
Finally, off to the left is Recount, done up to be mostly transparent. Based on the addon list, a lot more stuff (scrolling combat text, Omen, etc.) will pop up when it's needed.
Here's what Metzerott had to say about it:
My UI is designed around the concept of "Just in time information." I tried to make as many addons as possible only appear to give me information when they have information to present. When the addon is not presenting information it goes away or goes as transparent as possible. Some addons, such as SexyMap, look cool and get to stay at a more visible alpha. This is a very beautiful game. Many people have spent many years building it, I don't like things obstructing my view of it. This UI is made for 1680x1050 resolution.
Just-in-time, indeed. I may draw some features from this for my own UI, in fact. The circular unit frames are not for me, I'm not a fan of the font he's using, and I like to see bars as well as numbers for health/mana, but everyone has their own preferences. I do like how there are no action bars showing; at a guess, this player has most of his core keybindings memorized, and the rest are on oPie menus.
List of mods used:
Ara_Broker_XP: ASCII experience display LibDataBroker plugin
picoEXP: Another LDB XP plugin
Fortress: Displays LDB plugin data
MakeRocketGoNow: LDB quick launcher (to be honest, I don't really understand what this one does)
picoFPS: LDB framerate display
StatBlock_Coords: LDB coordinate display
tekKompare: Always-on equipment comparison tooltips, and hover tooltips on linked items
tekJunkSeller: Automatically vendors grey items
tekErr: Lua error manager
tekDebug: Addon debugging utility
tekability: Durability on the paperdoll screen and as an LDB plugin
oUF: Unit frame framework
oUF_Metzerott: Circular unit frames for oUF, made custom for this UI.
oUF_CombatFeedback: Adds combat feedback to oUF frames (text for events like "dodge" or taking damage)
oUF_Banzai: Aggro coloring for oUF frames
OPie: Radial action menus
OmniCC: Cooldown counts on everything
FluidFrames: Move any frame
MikScrollingBattleText: Scrolling combat text
Bartender4: Action bars
ElkBuffBars: Bars for buffs and debuffs
Omen: Threat meter
Recount: Damage meter
_Cursor: Customizable cursor trails
ArkInventory: Flexible inventory display
GoGoMount: One-key mounting
Cellular: Instant-messenger style whisper chat mod
Forte: I have no idea what this mod is
PowerAuras: Customizable indicators for just about anything
SexyMap: "Minimap awesomification"
Blipstick: Reskins minimap blips ("!", "?", etc.)
ButtonFacade: Support for skinning action buttons
ButtonFacade_Metz: Custom button skins
DKIRunes: Rune and disease display for Death Knights
SellOMatic: Automatically vendor whatever items you want, not just grey ones
Postal: Enhanced mailbox support
Portfolio: Library for addon options
Deadly Boss Mods: Need-to-know information about bosses
Butsu: Slick loot frame
Prat 3.0: Chat enhancements
If you like it, you can download it from WoWInterface. And if you don't like it, and think you can do better, I invite you to submit your own UI to readerui@gmail.com.
Interested in getting the most out of your user interface? Come back once a week for more examples of reader UIs. For more details on individual addons, check out Addon Spotlight, your source for everything addon-related.
Filed under: Add-Ons, Reader UI of the Week
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
smileyy Jun 15th 2009 3:10PM
I don't understand the minimap in the middle-bottom of all these UIs. The minimap is something I rarely need to look at. Why does it get such a prominent placement?
Some sort of need for symmetry is all I can figure.
dkslatten Jun 15th 2009 3:15PM
I use the minimap often as a hunter in PvP, but everyone who gathers should be looking for nodes, or herbs constantly.
havitech Jun 15th 2009 3:29PM
I've always had mine in the middle-bottom as a focus to sort-of anchor my UI together. It's not at all intrusive if you set the scale right, in my opinion.
I believe WoW.com should feature Everlui http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info13580-everlUI.html in the next Reader UI of the Week. I completely dumped my custom UI in favor of this person's beautiful compilation.
havitech Jun 15th 2009 3:31PM
@my comment
Now that I think about it, a custom UI off WoWInterface isn't exactly a "Reader UI." But I'm a reader, and I use it, does that count? :)
PeeWee Jun 15th 2009 6:14PM
dkslatten
SexyMap has a feature called the HUD. It removes the original minimap and shows you a HUD instead with all the blips and blops that are the nodes and herbs. Extremely useful. When you're done, you pres the keybind again and toggle back.
Sedirex Jun 15th 2009 3:11PM
I'm sick of seeing UIs featured here that are nothing but the player sitting in Dalaran. What makes UIs cluttered is things like raid frames or DBM or SCT that appear in combat. Anyone could hide their action buttons out of combat and call it minimalist. The best UIs have things appear in logical places and look like they belong there. Unless this player really spends all his time flying in Crystalsong, this is a waste of a feature.
AyaJulia Jun 15th 2009 3:16PM
This. Even if I'm taking screenshots in Dalaran, I start up my DBM and such in test mode to simulate the clutter.
I'd submit my UI, but it's a variant of one that's freely available on wowinterface. So, meh.
VSUReaper Jun 15th 2009 3:32PM
QFT - While this UI does look very minimal, there are no spells at all visible, and since hes a warlock, I sincerely doubt he has EVERYTHING keybound.
What I want to see is in combat stuff. Yeah, it looks really cluttered, but thats when a UI shines: when the shit hits the fan and you need to know whats going on and whats incoming.
Mine is what is prolly considered to be a "rectangular unit frames towards the bottom, a large bottom panel studded with action buttons, and a customized mini-map moved to the middle of the bottom," (actually, my map is bottom right, but w/e) it was built to suit me and my purposes: leading raids.
Yeng Jun 15th 2009 3:54PM
I agree with the others. If I'm just flying around I can hit Alt-Z and have the most uncluttered UI ever. You need to start featuring screenshots of the UI in other situations like in parties and raids, otherwise it just doesn't mean much.
Janaa Jun 15th 2009 4:57PM
Yeah, the "I've turned off almost everything then taken my screenshot" UIs are highly annoying. Or "I have everything set to Show Only In Combat so my screen is almost empty when I'm not!". How is a bunch of mods set to auto-hide worth printing? The UI is being intentionally hidden.
BORING ABSENT UI IS BORING.
Show us some healer setups. Healers generally need the most information on screen at once - so how do THEY handle it rather than these 3-button yawn dps?
AyaJulia Jun 15th 2009 5:20PM
I agree that healing UIs would be nice. Real ones (i.e. pretty without shoving raid frames off into an I-was-standing-in-the-fire-because-I-was-watching-Grid corner).
Ehh, maybe I'll submit mine anyway, despite my basis in a readily available UI. I have Grid front-and-center, with a clear area around my character so I can see anything I need to see. Just need a day or two of raiding to take some decent shots.
Pandalicious Jun 15th 2009 5:53PM
I'm guessing you all didn't look at the UI's shown just 3-4 features ago? Both were from healers and both showed raid situations (one at Strand, the other in Naxx25). I think one reason you're complaining of not seeing more healing/raid setups is that this "of the week" feature has only hit 4 times in the past 4 months. More like "Reader UI of the Month" these days.
Janaa Jun 15th 2009 5:55PM
@Panda - It's true, I don't get to see WoWinsider every day and while I try to NEXT PAGE a few times when I do get back, I may miss some. I'll have a look in at these - thanks. :)
Wyred Jun 15th 2009 7:23PM
It's a welcome return for this column in my opinion (I'm an add-on addict), but previous posts have been better. Check out Frogs for a very nice one. I don't agree with everything he did in terms of functionality, but the aesthetic is great and I stole plenty of it for my own (meaning I can't really submit mine). Previous posts have also had out of and in combat screenies as well, with more in depth explanations, hopefully more like that to come.
For real addicts Elitist Jerks has a 45+page thread with UI's, some downloadable and all explained/add-ons listed. And @AyaJulia, one problem with healer UI's is that almost all of them in combat will feature Grid smack bang in the middle of (or close to) the screen. You can't get better, but there's not much you can do with it either assuming you change it all the time for 10, 25 and 40 man (WG) raids. Make a frame for that in clear view and you are some sort of UI god. Hmm, did I just issue a challenge?
Magresda Jun 15th 2009 3:17PM
Looks very clean and nice. Don't like the mini-map placement though, I rarely use it and it's very prominent in this UI.
Also, as the previous commenter mentioned - I would love to see this UI in action. Right now I'm left with a feeling it was designed purely to be pretty. Would be nice to see it in a raid setting.
Assy McGee Jun 17th 2009 10:47AM
go look at it on WoWinterface, theres screenshots there of him in combat
personally i love the UI and i really like the placement of the map, im always looking at mine on my toon cause normally when i see a yellow blip on it it normally means i can make money from it :D
dkslatten Jun 15th 2009 5:02PM
Yea, I always get a little OCD about add-ons cluttering up my UI, but if you raid, there is nothing you can really do about that. It drives me crazy that, even with my UI icons scaled to a minimum percent, I am still loosing about 30% of the actual game display.
Then you buy a larger monitor... then you have space to put the add-ons you wanted to see before, but just could not spare room for ;P
Someone please submit the most cluttered and disgusting looking UI possible please.
Nuka Jun 15th 2009 3:25PM
Forte is short for ForteXorcist. The warlock mod showing the Soul Stone timer, amongst doing a lot of other things that Necrosis now sucks at doing.
dfsnow Jun 15th 2009 3:27PM
There looks like a mini-version of the main map (not the minimap) just above the soulstone counter. What mod does that?
pietrex Jun 15th 2009 3:29PM
None, just press Shift+M.