Reader UI of the Week: Crazyate's UI
by Mathew McCurley 
Apr 6th 2010 at 9:00AM
Each week WoW.com brings 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@wow.com.
Emergency! Get ready people, let's move, move, move! We're going to need to get the whole pit crew together as soon as possible. This week, reader Crazyates the paladin sent me a plea for help -- tips and tricks to get his UI on course. He's playing on a laptop, so this week's installment of Reader UI of the Week could be very helpful to the small-screen crowd. We've got a lot of work to do! Release the kraken!
What follows is a plea for help:
Hello. Unlike some of your *other* submissions for readerUI of the week, my UI is not clean, neat, or very spacey. If you could take a look at my current addons, setup, requirements, and then give me a few tips, that'd be great! I've also attached a few screenshots, so you can see what I'm talking about.
Setup:
I play on a 13" Macbook, in windowed mode (for quick alt-tabing). This doesn't give me a lot of screen space, at least compared to my brother's 21" monitor hooked up to his gaming rig. It ends up being about 1200x750 pixels, or whatever the WoW aspect ratio resizes it to.
Addons:
-SpartanUI. This is a big one. I love nice, clean look of this addon, but it's disrupted by my small screen and other addons. It's lost a lot of it's original appeal. Note: SpartanUI uses Bartender for it's bar control.
-FuBar helps a lot in saving space.
-Omen Since I tank, this is a necessity.
-PallyPower takes up a lot of space. I liked ZOMGbuffs simply because it was smaller, but PallyPower is a little more "community accepted".
-CowTip Provides a bit more info, but can get pretty big.
-Decursive I tried it out for pvp, but i'm wondering how to simplify this, or if there is a more streamlined alt?
-PowerAuras I just like the look of this, and is a lot of fun to play around with.
-QuestHelper I minimize this most of the time, so it's not a huge deal.
-Recount is again minimized, but is nice to have every once in a while.
Problems:
-LIke i said, my screen is small, so i can't just spread everything out. Trying to fit all the unit frames for a 25man makes me shiver. As you can see, when i'm in just a 5 man pug, i'm losing about 2/3 of my screen (esp with pets - pets take up a lot of space)! Talk about tunnel vision....
-Unit frames! SpartanUI does not let you customize the UnitFrames in any way. XPerl or any other addon adds a second copy of each unit frame, instead of replacing them. This is a myway-or-the-highway setup. :(
-Shrinking or eliminating any other addons: decursive, CowTip, PallyPower, and/or the chatbox, for starters
So basically I need help! I've graduated Addons 101: how to use your addons (or so i'd like to think :P ), but i need help with Addons 201: using your addons to get the look and feel you want. How and what addons can I use to replace/supplement my current setup to fix these problems? And then, how can I keep it updated to change it for tanking, dps, healing, of pvp (all of which i'm capable of: stupid pallys) ?
Thanks for you time, and I hope you can help me out!
-Crazyates - Human Paladin
-The Scryers (US)
Thanks for the email, Crazyates. I'm here to help. Let's see how much we can cover and get you on the right path to user interface clarity. Your choices for most of the addons you have selected are perfectly fine, for the most part. Your goal now, especially when playing on a smaller-screened laptop, is to strip away the superfluous and combine addons and spaces into a more efficient use of screen real estate.
Let's address the three main concerns you're having, and we can go from there. From what I'm seeing, your three issues are Spartan UI, needing a general UI philosophy or goal, and class role UI synergy. We can do this.
This is Sparta!
Your first step in this whole ordeal is to load Spartan UI into a cannon and launch it into the sun. I have nothing against Spartan UI. In fact, it's a pretty damn good beginner's suite for people who want something that looks like, well, Spartan UI. Every day I get a Reader UI of the Week submission where someone uses Spartan UI and adds to the interface. With that being said, Spartan UI does not belong on smaller screens and, frankly, has way too much art for my tastes. You just do not need that much frame art getting in the way of your other addons, which could be using up much less room. With Spartan UI removed, you will now have the wide open plains of screen real estate to populate with addons.
Bartender, paired with the always and eternal ButtonFacade, is more than awesome. Releasing your action bars from their spartan prison will allow you greater flexibility in their positioning. I would recommend checking out my little diagrams from my past Reader UI of the Week: Mar's UI. For Mar's UI, I diagrammed a sample user interface that is made for smaller screens. The main philosophy is keeping the center of the screen clear with a single FuBar or ChocolateBar at the top holding all of your dockable addons and plug-ins.
Grid-iron
Your philosophy should be simple: Tetris. Fitting together disparate addons can be tricky but always doable. You already have a good number of addons hidden most of the time, so you're fine there. As a tank primarily, there's no reason to not substitute unit frames for Grid. Grid is a godsend to tanks because, most of the time, we do not need to know most of the information unit frames report. Grid features, by default, a red box in the upper right corner of a person's grid displaying whether or not they have aggro from a mob. Isn't that all you really need? Grid can replace your unit frames in 5-man, 10-man or 25-man content, making it a perfect addition to your suite.
As for unit frames, you cannot go wrong with Shadowed Unit Frames or Pitbull. I recently talked a little about Pitbull last week, so read over that paragraph for a quick primer on what to do with your now free unit frames.
Download Grid at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].
Roleplay
As a paladin, you fill many roles. You can easily craft a user interface that works for every spec you decide to play, with the right addons. Grid, as mentioned above, can be complimented with some excellent addons like GridStatusRaidDebuff, GridStatusRaidIcons and Clique, which when used in tandem create a very usable and very minimalist user interface. Clique allows you to bind some excellent spells to mouse-over click-casting for easy healing. Twigleaf's healer UI, profiled back in June of 2009, is an excellent example of the healing powers of Grid and friends. Remember that most pieces of the user interface can be static, especially as a tank or DPS. Your chat, threat meters and assorted general-use addons won't be moving anywhere, and Grid will double as a healing interface and as information for tanking or DPSing.
Download GridStatusRaidDebuff (requires Grid) at [Curse].
Download GridStatusRaidIcons (requires Grid) at [Curse].
Download Clique at [Curse] or [WoWInterface].
That should put you on the right path, Crazyates. The biggest hurdle you will have is the learning curve in retraining yourself in a new user interface, but the results will be astounding. Free yourself of Spartan UI and go it alone with individual addons fit together simply. All of that extra screen artwork that is now gone will free up a good deal of your laptop's screen. Try to keep your bars two to three buttons high and work around that. You'll have something beautiful in no time. Please report back after you have had time to slave over your interface, and let's see what you come up with!
Thank you all for reading this week. Before we go, I wanted to give you a few more suggestions for anyone who wants to potentially submit their own user interfaces. First, the biggest the screenshots, the better. I can only work with what I am given, so bigger screenshots can be manipulated better for the article and for closeups of addons I enjoy. Second, tell me about your user interface. Why did you put certain addons in certain places? I love seeing pictures, but I know the readers and myself would love to know the thought process that went into the UI. And finally, please send screenshots along with movies of your interface in action. Movies are fine, but I would appreciate screenshots along with it. See you all next week!
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 6)
conker87 Apr 6th 2010 9:03AM
Wow. Opposite of minimalist anyone? Especially while grouped.
Qot Apr 6th 2010 10:15AM
Reminds me of the old Tim Meadows NewsForce SNL skit where he's a TV news anchor on a show that keeps putting more and more infographics (weather, station logo, news crawl, website, stock listings crawl, the TV-G rating, question of the day, etc.) up.
"Let's take a call.. but first, let's see a picture of the "Terminator" robot. (Terminator robot appears, taking up the middle of the screen) That's cool!"
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go feel old because I just looked it up and that skit is over 10 years old.
Nex Apr 6th 2010 10:54AM
that's like the worst user interface i ever seen.
he got like 30% of the screen available for view only.
he should totally throw a few extra addons to fill that space.
why waste it, right?
Boz Apr 6th 2010 11:09AM
Way to bash a player looking for help.
Before leaving a comment, it is typically polite to at least READ the article, not just look at the pictures. If you had, you'd already know that this player is asking for feedback to improve their UI; they already know that it's cluttered.
midgebot Apr 6th 2010 11:53AM
@Qot
I referenced that skit as well recently in the last rogue column. He had a picture of the Terminator robot smack in the middle...yeah, that's nice.
Backspace Apr 6th 2010 1:14PM
Qot, since reading that I've been scouring the web trying to find a clip of that skit it sounds to brilliant. But no luck... Any chance you could point me to a youtube link or something?
Oh and uh... to be on topic... sick UI!
Phoulmouth Apr 6th 2010 3:43PM
Yeah.... How do you raid? Your UI takes up almost 70% of your viewing space?
Please! If you are going to show UIs on this blog please show functional UIs.
Worcester Apr 6th 2010 3:55PM
It doesn't mention it in the article, but definitely turning off the character portraits on the Unit Frames is a must. I also play on a small laptop right now and it saves a ton of real estate. I use Shadowed Unit Frames. You can turn off the portraits globally with just a couple clicks.
If you still need some artwork for the "feel" of the game, I'd suggest using something like Btex. Don't use one with button "groupings" though. Instead, find a nice organic texture that you can fade in a bit and put your on-screen info in that.
Bartender can fade out any bars you don't use often, and fade them in when you mouse-over a particular area. Personally, I've switched to Opie for most of my non-combat abilities, but Bartender can handle it as well if you prefer. Sexymap can fade out your map buttons in the same manner.
Lastly, I'll second the idea of using Button Facade with Bartender. In particular, the Zoomed theme is nice for laptops. It erases the borders and allows the icons to actually use that space. It's a small change, but I notice a big difference.
Camo Apr 7th 2010 12:50PM
My first thougth was: "The will rename the new expansion to Clutterclysm!"
But yeah get rid off SpartanUI, it's way to huge.
You can also mess around with the ingame scaling or use "/run SetCVar('uiScale', 768 / ) " to get some more room.
CowTip is nice but it's so much info that you probably don't need, shown in a very space consuming way. I would suggest TipTac as an alternative. You still have the information but not everything in a single line.
If you don't like to play around in lua, pitbull or shadowedUF is probably the best way to some slim UFs. You won't need much information on them too but mana bars are important.
Omen and Recount can be de-uglyfied in their options and placed near some chat.
I don't have a pally so I can't suggest much but I don't think that you need all your seals, judgements and blessings on those bars (doesn't pallypower support clicking?).
I would disable all those minimap buttons, too. You can access most options through slash comands if you need them but I think you don't need the decursive/ bartender/gatherer/enchantrix config that often. You can also use another minimap addon to remove the minimap clutter, I use pMinimap at the moment.
I try to put all those ablilities that I need into two bars because it's hard to find a place for 4-5 bars that are filled with stuff you don't need all the time.
Shabada Apr 6th 2010 9:05AM
Heh, how can he even see where he's going with everything in his screen?
Schubie Apr 6th 2010 9:06AM
At first glance, I thought "must be a holy paladin", but no, Prot Pally.
I've always preferred less UI for tanking. Want to see as much of the environment as possible.
--Also, still using questhelper, eh? :D
Justin Apr 6th 2010 4:16PM
"I've always preferred less UI for tanking. Want to see as much of the environment as possible."
Exactly. Turn off all your addons except Omen and run some 5-mans I bet you won't miss 3/4 of the addons you have. The ones you do miss turn back on. Search a bunch of UIs for ideas and emulate that.
my $.02
Sylice Apr 6th 2010 9:06AM
What i find helpful with spartan UI is turning off unit frames which saves a huge amount of room, whilst keeping the huge amount of space in the action bars.
Hedwinkle Apr 6th 2010 9:16AM
I die a little inside whenever I see the Spartan UI
aMac Apr 6th 2010 9:39AM
There's nothing wrong with Spartan per se, but yes I find turning off it's default unit frames is definitely needed.
Also, I find it pretty necessary to scale down the global UI so there's room to put things either side of the action bars, like this:
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/5166/groupui.jpg
K Apr 6th 2010 10:11AM
Actually, this UI is fairly easy to fix.
Lose the portraits, move the player's and target's bar closer together and move the map to it's default location. Attach a button tray to the map so you get rid of all the buttons
Buffs to the left side of the screen.
Get rid of the action bar background, move the bars to the middle. Bind your rotation, make the rest of it smaller or fade it out. Attach rarely used skills to OPie rings. Move professions, food, buffs etc to a bar on the right side and fade it out. Make the system buttons small and fade them out too.
Fade out Titan Bar aswell.
Get Grid or something else of the like, keep it on the right side, so that there's room for omen/recount under it.
Move the chat frame to the bottom right part of the screen.
Voila, you've got a perfectly functional UI.
Adeany Apr 6th 2010 12:26PM
Enabling the "widescreen" option in Spartan (even if you're not on a widescreen) will decrease its UI ratio and make it considerably smaller, freeing up some space.
Tiger Apr 6th 2010 4:17PM
IMO a good alternative to Spartan UI would be nUI, which you can get from various places including http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info9108-nUI.html
nUI provides a good out of the box revamp of the UI with everything packaged away nicely down the button of the screen, and has a built in HUD which many players will like using. Also has good customization settings which can be easily accessed by using the nUI Config GUI (http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info12088-nUIConfigGUI.html)
Mr. Tastix Apr 6th 2010 5:25PM
@Hedwinkle: Spartan UI is fine depending on your screen size. I, for example, am currently using a monitor that has a native resolution of 1024x768 (my standard monitor broke) I wouldn't dare use Spartan UI on it, it'd just be bloody stupid.
But, on my standard 22" monitor which has a resolution of 1680x1050 (widescreen) I would be able to use such addons.
Chrisamcnicholas Apr 6th 2010 9:09AM
Yo dawg i heard you like mods so we put some mods in your mods so you can see about a third of your screen while you're grouped.