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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsReader UI of the Week: Your Addon/UI Columnist
by Mathew McCurley 
Feb 9th 2010 at 7:00PM
As the new addon and user interface columnist, I've been given the task of not only finding and informing the WoW.com community about new, useful and awesome addons, but also the unique job of taking a look at the community's user interfaces and highlighting some of the awesome creativity and innovations that the community can share. I want this column to be very reader oriented - let's go on this amazing addon journey together!
Since WoW.com hasn't done a Reader UI of the Week in a while, in lieu of a submission I thought I would profile my own personal user interface and addon set up. A few people in the comments to my first AddOn Spotlight and in some e-mails I received wanted to see my UI to get a better feel for what I find to be aesthetically acceptable and necessary. I'll keep the list strictly to the addons that are core to my game experience and leave out the fringe addons for later columns. If you have any questions or need an addon recommendation, please send me an e-mail and hopefully we can find something that sates your addon desire. Without further ado, here is what I see:
Are you in awe, yet? Look at all those buttons! There's no way for me to miss a spell since I have everything available to me. The action bars are large enough for me to select spells easily. My Carbonite and SexyMap maps are nice and big to show me the way to my next quest! I don't know why I have Tankadin there, since this is obviously a warlock's UI, but better safe than sorry, I'd say!
I'm sorry. This ordeal hurts too much to continue. Please forgive me. Here is my real UI:
Amazing, right? It's like you're looking through my eyes. It's like Being John Malkovich, with just a little bit less John Cusack. Here's my philosophy -- the user interface is a piece of a larger experience that includes the game proper and the situations you are put into. I want to make my user interface as unobtrusive as possible while still having incredible amounts of functionality and information at my disposal.
The backbone of my user interface is made up of six categories of addons: Skada/Omen, kgPanels, Dominos, Shadowed Unit Frames, Chatter (or Prat) and SexyMap. At some point I will chronicle all of these mods in greater detail (or detail has already been given on AddOn Spotlight). For now, these are the addons that allow me to create my simplistic, unobtrusive user interface that gives me all of the information that I need while not sacrificing screen real estate. All of the links for the addons I will discuss are located at the bottom of the article.
Skada/Omen, kgPanels and Dominos
Saving on screen real estate is one of the hardest things to do, especially since most addons come in what feels like the "large size" as their defaults. Save space by shrinking down addons and using the scale feature. Also, note your scale number as it can be easier to input that number than sight-guessing using a slider to make all of the addons the same scale size.
kgPanels is a fantastic addon for spacing out your essential interface "areas." I like to have my interface compartmentalized so that my brain knows, based on the situation, where to be looking on my screen. Checking an ability cooldown? Look at the bars and my cooldown addon above them. Before I used kgPanels, I was addicted to a few Viewport addons that made the bottom of my screen black or textured, allowing me to position addons inside of the viewport for a cleaner look. Over time, however, that style began to irk me. kgPanels does what the viewport addons did, but in a more flexible, less constrained way.
kgPanels is completely customizable for use with player made borders or other presets found in your addons. In the screenshot below, you can see that I have given each of my addons the same simple black border in order to make everything look uniform.
ShadowedUF, Chatter and SexyMap
Simplistic unit frames are key to my set up. I'm personally a fan of Shadowed Unit Frames because of the wealth of information the bars can show while at the same time keeping real estate costs down. My bars are a little bigger than they have to be, mostly because I don't want to strain my eyes too much. Shadowed Unit Frames allows me to have an enemy cast bar, health and mana in the same simple window. Cascading down to the right of the Target's unit frame are Target of Target and Focus, which are not visible in the screenshot.
Chatter and Prat are the two chat addons that I usually recommend, mostly because of their simplicity. Chatter is the current addon that I am using. The buttons for chat are removed, the mouse's scroll wheel moves chat up or down, and the detached text input bar allows me to fit the Chatter window snugly into the corner of the main bottom bar. The learning curve on inputing text directly in front of me took a few hours of typing, but the result has been phenomenal and less intrusive than ever. Many players, including myself, consider the chat addon to be the most important addon. In the early days of WoW, the chat system was constrained and lacking in features - chat addons quickly made communication easier.
SexyMap is my map addon of choice. Many people are turned off by SexyMap because of the first preset that appears when the addon is first installed. I implore you to tinker around with the settings and shapes and create your own map. SexyMap is basically a platform for minimap development and allows wonderful flexibility when dealing with the size, shape, border textures and icons of your minimap.
The Bottom Line
I hope you all enjoyed that little peek into my mind when it comes to user interface development and creativity. I like using smaller, lightweight and customizable addons that fit together nicely and allow the whole package to come together seamlessly. My UI took me approximately two to three hours to perfect, mostly because I was just learning these addons and their configurations. There was at least a half hour of drawing boxes on a piece of paper to get everything just right, location wise.
But this column isn't about me! It's about you! So let's see all of those inventive, fun, and awesome user interfaces that you guys have come up with. Each week, I'd like to use a Reader's UI to learn an important lesson about user interface creation and, hopefully, help everyone have a better gameplay experience as their user interface and addons work for them and not just get in the way.
AddOns Discussed:
- Omen (Threat meters): Download at [Curse] or [WoWInterface]
- Skada (DPS/Healing/Threat meters): Download at [Curse] or [WoWInterface]
- kgPanels (UI Artwork): Download at [Curse] or [WoWInterface]
- Dominos (Action Bar Management): Download at [Curse] or [WoWInterface]
- ButtonFacade (Action Bar Button Artwork): Download at [Curse] or [WoWInterface]
- ShadowedUF (Unit Frames Addon): Download at [Curse] or [WoWInterface]
- Chatter (Chat Addon): Download at [Curse] or [WoWInterface]
- Prat 3.0 (Chat Addon): Download at [Curse] or [WoWInterface]
- SexyMap (Minimap Alternative): Download at [Curse]
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. Submit your UI today at readerui (at) wow dot com!
Filed under: Add-Ons, Reader UI of the Week
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 5)
jbodar Feb 10th 2010 12:10AM
You have to uncheck "Lock Frames" in General options and it will show you the current placement of all units. Re-check the option once you're done moving everything where it should go.
Novos Feb 9th 2010 7:58PM
"Alternatively, you could use one Skada window to show threat in combat and DPS/damage outside of combat."
Actually, you can just have Skada toggle to threat mode in combat, and then return to whatever mode you prefer when out of combat. One mod, one window -- it's in the config options :-)
Chewy&Go Feb 9th 2010 8:06PM
I think that's what he said in the line you quoted.
Mike Feb 9th 2010 8:03PM
I personally prefer Blizzard UI elements to addons. Not because I don't think they're useful or anything, but as an extension of the same reason I use Mac. No, not because of fanboyism, but because of consistency. If I know how one (properly-designed, anyway) Mac app works, I know how another will. I know they will look like they belong. The same goes for Blizzard's UI. It looks like a complete product, not something tacked on, and I know new UI features will behave as familiar. With very few exceptions (Baggins is the only one I use that I can think of), no addon looks like it belongs there. Many even have vastly different behaviours (all Blizzard context menus have the feature that pressing Escape will close them first, without touching anything; third-party addon context menus done). They use different fonts. They place elements randomly in the middle of the screen. There's a huge obsession with floating windows and non-integration. They add minimap buttons, but always in the same spot so it's not hard to have multiple overlapping buttons. They can lack GUIs for configuring them, and even lack documentation on how to configure them through text commands.
Many people describe certain addons as offering features that Blizzard should have implemented. True. But a request to addon authors out there: at least make your product look and feel like Blizzard designed them. Please?
(Note: the addons I do use include DBM, Baggins, tabDB, Clique, Skada, GSLite, and LagBar FPS)
Thyrial Feb 9th 2010 8:30PM
No offense but alot of that is rediculous. Almost every addon worth using has plenty of options to change their appearence to match pretty much anything you want. Especially any addons that support Shared Media =P It seems to me that you either haven't looked into any new addons in years or you are somehow horribly misinformed because there is really no case where you should be running into Addons with no GUI for config. An LDB displayer/Fubar makes minimap buttons a joke, and there's also addons like Minimap Button Frame to pull said buttons into their own space and completely prevent overlapping (even a few of the minimap addons have automatic button positioning built in).
Given the addon options available today you can put together a UI that both looks and functions far better then Blizzards ever has or most likely ever will.
That said I would gladly use Blizzard's UI if they'd let us configure it. It's far too restricted (and ugly imo) for me to be comfortable playing with it. Especially the unit frame positioning... Gamers naturally focus on the center of the screen, so let's throw some of the most important information we display WAY in the top left corner.
Mike Feb 9th 2010 8:50PM
I think you captured my entire point in your second sentence. "Plenty of options". TOO many options. I don't want to spend a couple hours configuring an addon just so it works nice, I want it to work nice when I install it. Moving various elements so that they fit together nicely and work well is not pleasant. I did not buy an addon from IKEA.
Some addons I've tried in the past week:
Bartender - By default it moves all 10 action bars to the centre of the screen. Though some of the bars are the same internally as the extra built-in bars, my keybindings don't show up (though they still work). The bars will dock nicely to each other to keep spacing consistent, and the dock to the sides of the screen, but these two different dockings don't work together. I can position one action bar nicely on the bottom of the screen, but then I have to manually position the second one to the right of it. I then have to manually position the chatbox so as to make good use of real estate.
SpartanUI - Actually rather nice. Looks nice, behaves nice (except with the Totem Bar), very consistent. Had a command-only configuration system, no GUI, and no documentation (I guessed at /sui and it worked). Again had issues with default placement of the chat box covering up frames. I really only stopped using it because I just couldn't adjust to my frame and target being at the bottom of the screen.
Various buffbars - All failed, as the super-useful Consolidate Buffs option isn't supported. I don't need to know at a glance that Blessing of Sanctuary still has 23 minutes remaining.
X-Perl - This one actually surprised me with the default settings. They were set up rather nice, and though there were lots of options, it was easy to quickly change lots of things without having to fine-grain everything. Stopped using because of lack of proper support for Totem Timers, and threat display wasn't nearly as obvious as the default frames.
Though if someone could direct me to an addon which just modifies the Party frames to be horizontal, moveable, and have always-on display of buffs/debuffs (like the Target frame), I would greatly appreciate it.
jbodar Feb 10th 2010 12:36AM
Bars - Dominos takes very little time to configure, though you should configure keybinds within the addon to make them visible -- I imagine Bartender is the same way, but considering you set this once and it takes maybe a minute, it's a minor inconvenience at best (toggle keybind config, mouseover the button and hit the key).
Buffs - Dotimer has used consolidated buffs for a while.
Hoggersbud Feb 10th 2010 11:00AM
>They add minimap buttons, but always in the same spot so it's not hard to have multiple overlapping buttons.<
Ouch, awkward sentence construction there. :P But while I agree that the problem of overlapping minimap buttons is a real one, I'd say that there's little Addon authors can do about it on their own. How are they to know where every other Addon you have installed has its button? Maybe the fault is Blizzard's for the minimap button interface, and that's why some Addon authors have come up with ways to clean up the minimap buttons.
At least there is now an integrated configuration window for addons in game, though I think the idea came before it was implemented by Blizzard. If it was, I commend them on it, and I hope they do the same thing about the Minimap buttons.
Hoggersbud Feb 10th 2010 11:10AM
>I think you captured my entire point in your second sentence. "Plenty of options". TOO many options. I don't want to spend a couple hours configuring an addon just so it works nice, I want it to work nice when I install it. Moving various elements so that they fit together nicely and work well is not pleasant. I did not buy an addon from IKEA.<
I'd use a different metaphor than Ikea, I'd put it more like many addons are like buying furniture from an unfinished furniture store. This is not a bad thing. It may not appeal to you, but sometimes I like being able to pick the colors of my furniture...or even the individual pieces of it. That is what a lot of addons ARE about, and complaining about it just doesn't make sense to me. Do you expect the maker of Bartender to know how you want your action bars? Everybody is different. Some people are different for each character.
I suppose that what you want might be found in one of the Addon Packs that consolidate addons with a particular configuration, but that doesn't mean you should knock Addons for their base state.
Perhaps you don't mean it that way, but I'm more trying to put up another way of seeing things than argue with what you're saying anyway.
Mike Feb 10th 2010 11:23AM
@Hoggersbud No, I didn't quite mean that addon authors should know how I want it. I apologize if that's what I sounded like. I know there are lots of people out there, could be even the majority of addon users (who are likely a minority of players), that like all the customization and amount of detailed options. There was a time when I would've stood shoulder-to-shoulder with you in that regard. The reason I compared it to PC applications, I've used many different applications across Windows, Mac, and Linux, seen almost every alternative in any field you can think of, whether it's web browsers or word processors or application development. I've seen lots of good apps that went with the detailed-options route and many good apps with the integrated, zero-configuration route. I used to be in the detailed camp, having shifted to the zero-configuration camp in recent years for various reasons. The point I was getting with is that I've seen next-to-no addons developed with a zero-configuration style in mind.
Question: where is a good source of these Addon Packs you speak of?
Hoggersbud Feb 10th 2010 2:51PM
>No, I didn't quite mean that addon authors should know how I want it. I apologize if that's what I sounded like.
Ok, so what do you mean? What do you want from addon authors? Your particular complaints were quite specific, and were more in lines of how you wanted things, and as such would require more customized options for you to be satisfied, not less.
>There was a time when I would've stood shoulder-to-shoulder with you in that regard.
No, I don't think you would have, because if nothing else, we'd have totally different preferences. I can tell from your criticisms of particular addons that we do not share a similar philosophy at all when it comes to our desired UI.
>I've seen lots of good apps that went with the detailed-options route and many good apps with the integrated, zero-configuration route. I used to be in the detailed camp, having shifted to the zero-configuration camp in recent years for various reasons. The point I was getting with is that I've seen next-to-no addons developed with a zero-configuration style in mind.<
Really? For me, it depends on the addons. Some addons don't care about customization, some very much do. UI Addons such as Bartender and Xperl, to point out two you named which I'm familiar with, they exist to be customized, not to be just used as is. Whether or not they can be made to do things how you like them, I don't know, but it seems a bit unfair to complain that you're expected to not just use the defaults. Or that they don't work with every addon out there as well as you expect.
To bring it back to computers, Sure, there are annoying apps that use their own widgets and whatnot (Quicktime, I"m looking at you), but there are times when the default UI just doesn't work for some people. The difference between most UI addons and Quicktime though, is that one is meant to be different, the other is just being obstreperous.
And there's not even any configuration options in Quicktime. Unlike say Mozilla, or WinAmp where I can at least download some new skins.
Never wanted that, but it's apparently popular with some folks.
>Question: where is a good source of these Addon Packs you speak of?<
I couldn't say, I don't download packs, but I guess Curse has them. Whether it's any good, whether any of them are good, or would suit you? It's beyond me. I learned I liked having choices myself, and I prefer to pick and choose rather than go with some. And yes, there are some UI addons that do have too much configuration for me to bother with, Pitbull was one for example. If you'd mentioned that one as being too complicated, I'd have at least understood where you're coming from, but again, the nature of your criticisms, doesn't point me to think you would benefit from a simpler configuration option, but rather, that you'd be more satisfied with tinkering. You may not like the work, per se, but your specific needs are detailed enough that it's required.
At least that's how it looks to me.
alpha5099 Feb 9th 2010 8:25PM
I've got a UI question: I'm currently using ag_unitframes, having switched from xperl a few months ago, and I'm usually pretty happy with it. I have however found an issue: the feral druid I was screwing around with today couldn't see her mana bar when in cat form. Considering this is now something the default UI does, I'm surprised there's no option for it in ag. Is there any way to get that to work with ag, or do I maybe need to look into another unitframe add-on?
elvendude Feb 9th 2010 8:45PM
I would recommend you post in the Curse or WoWInterface page for this particular addon. Sometimes the addon dev him/herself will step in and answer a question.
Xarnlen Feb 9th 2010 8:47PM
I don't have one with raid frames up since I take those without anything visible during raids but here it is less raid frames.
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb110/wmerkens/WoWScrnShot_110509_084556.jpg
I will add one with the raid frames visible.
I am addon junkie, have currently 425 addons hehe.
jfofla Feb 9th 2010 8:48PM
Other people's UI's always look awkward to me.
syi Feb 9th 2010 8:57PM
I play a prot/holy pally and I am using your UI from now on
syi Feb 10th 2010 12:55AM
could you put up a guide to setting up the UI to look exactly as your? I can't figure out sexymap, kgpanels, chatter wont move. I can't cant seem to find the up dated version of shadowedUF
Sneakymelvin Feb 9th 2010 11:38PM
I love your not overly minimalist UI. Thank you for the tips, I am guilty as charged for the sexymap notes.
Doma Feb 9th 2010 10:24PM
Welcome! I hope you post a lot! Addons are one of my favorite features of WoW. I enjoy getting every ounce of form and function out of my UI. Do me a favor though, don't talk about QuickAuctions. I don't need any more competition.
I tried Skada for a while, and while I LOVED how it looked, I HATED how it recorded data.
Over the 2 weeks I used it, Skada's stats differed from Recount's between 200 dps on some fights and 2000 (!) on others. I figured out it was caused by how Skada treats dots and toggles entering combat. I went back to Recount because, in Skada's case, I valued function over form (even if recount is a massive memory hog). I really miss the old-fashioned DamageMeters (DM) addon. The one that pinged other players for accuracy.
I use Bartenders 4, and from what I hear, it's nearly similar to Dominos. I tried hiding the buttons except for mouse-over or holding Shift for a total minimalist UI, but couldn't get used to it.
The idea to rotate omen and your damage meter in the same spot depending on in/out combat is clever! I'm going to do that as soon as I log on! I'm pretty desperate to squeeze as much immediately useful info as possible into every pixel of space. This is not helped by my aging monitor, I have a 17" standard aspect flat panel that tops out at 1280x1024 pixels. It's an interesting challenge, trying to get a UI that works on a smaller screen on an aging computer.
Sporty Feb 9th 2010 11:10PM
Like the other posts have stated, would you please post more screenshots and the settings for the addons. I love your UI and very much want to replicate it.