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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsReader UI of the Week: Crazyates' UI Mk.II
by Mathew McCurley 
May 4th 2010 at 9:00PM
Welcome to Reader UI of the Week. You might remember Crazyate's UI a few weeks back (April 6, 2010, to be exact). Crazyates had a problem -- too much stuff in too little of a space. SpartanUI was a large culprit, and his unit frames in general were unwieldy. Today, we revisit Crazyates' UI in a Reader UI of the Week success story and show you how user interface drab becomes user interface fab! My strength is returning! Read on, heroes!
Followups to Reader UI of the Week columns are very much encouraged. Crazyates, how have things been since we last heard from you?
Wow! Look what a little bit of work can do to a user interface that was too messy for its own britches. Let's go over some of Crazyate's modifications and see what ideas we can incorporate into our own endeavours.Hello again!
Here are a few pics of my new UI. Here's what I've done per your article, reader comments, and a few people irl.
- Ditched SpartanUI, Decursive, Recount, PallyPower, and Omen.
- I've kept Bartender, FuBar, CowTip, powerauras, buffalo, and a few more small ones.
- I'm now using Shadowed Unit frames, Grid (with clique), skada, sexymap, kgpanels, SCT, and chatter.
- I have shrunk down a few addons, giving me more space. (only using 1 FuBar up top, scaling my Action bars and cowtip, etc.)
- I tried both Xperl and PitBull, but SUF was able to do what i want, which is what you see. (my ToT is nothing more than a 3D profile, no bars)
- GRID! I must say that I was skeptical of using this at first, but this addon truly is amazing. I have grid and clique set up for taunting/healing, depending on spec, and solves my problem of screen space, especially in a raid.
- Skada has replaced omen and recount. having 1 addon instead of 2? Sold.
- I'm using sexymap, chatter, and kgpanels as well on the bottom, and I think it helps separate my UI from my viewing area.
- I'm also using SCT, with incoming dmg/heals on the far left side, and outgoing dmg/heals on the right.
This is still a work in progress, and I continue to make changes daily, but my list of overhauls is growing shorter! I'm still working on fitting in a focus and TOF unit frames, replacing FuBar with something current, tweaking SCT, and maybe even weaning myself off of that 4th action bar that's partially hidden.
Overall, though, this is miles ahead of where I was. It may not be the most minimal UI (which I know you love), but it works for me, and I'm happy with where it's at. Thank you again!
Crazyates
<Dragon Knights>
The Scryers
Design to fit
Crazyates' user interface originally was based around the SpartanUI user interface package, but was definitely too large and cumbersome for his 13-inch Macbook. My recommendation was to ditch the UI compilation altogether and start from scratch using simpler UI elements. Crazyates did just that, designing around the size of his screen opposed to shoehorning in a user interface compilation that, admittedly, works much better on larger screens.
In addition, Crazyates was not afraid to scale down user interface elements that did not necessarily need to be large in order to be useful. Take a look at the bags bar and menu bar. While I still advocate getting rid of these two bars altogether, Crazyates has at least used the space wisely and used these two bars as a space filler. Again, using every piece of screen real estate you allow yourself is crucial and, to me at least, cathartic.
Borders? What borders?
Keeping your minimap simple is a tough thing to do, especially because all of those Sexymap presets look really cool and the minimap is the focus of a good deal of information gathering. Crazyates eschewed the glamorous map for the "Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" motif -- a simple, useful item.
By completely removing the minimap's border and leaving it as a simple square, Crazyates gives the minimap total movability and versatility. The minimap can go practically anywhere! In his case, it sits in a nice central location as a complementary piece to the bottom HUD bar.
Clean attic
Crazyates' user interface has one bar at the top to dock any dockable modules, as well as a simple buff interface. I am a fan of the single bar approach and especially like keeping the top of the screen as free from clutter as possible. Crazyates did some excellent work keeping things from getting out of control, while at the same time keeping all of the relevant information docked to the bar and up out of the way. His use of Power Auras, however, is a topic for another day.
I cannot commend you enough, Crazyates. You took a prefab user interface, gutted and renovated the proverbial user interface house and came back strong with a well defined, simplistic and clean UI. You get a gold star. I encourage anyone who has asked for interface guidance in the past, as well as people who ask in the future, to follow up so we can all see the wonderful progress made on your UIs. Crazyates' UI is a great example of how you guys, our awesome community, can help each other out in making this whole game experience better for everyone. Thank you!
Let's take a question, shall we?
Firstly I realise that this might not be the place to email you for this subject, but after reading your latest post on Stympa's UI (which was very informative by the way, learning about new Addons and seeing them in action = double win) I thought I would ask anyway :)
The low down is that I need "help with my UI" as you so put: I really really like the default UI, it keeps the whole warcraft flavour about things. I do however use some addons which are needed such as omen, DBM, Healbot etc.. but it always feels cluttered around my big clunky default UI when I go too far. Are there any UI addons such as the tukui you described in your column that allow you to organise your UI while still keeping a warcraft flavour? Yes I realise "warcraft flavour" is a loose term that could mean anything, but I mean in the sense, the UI would look like it came from world of warcraft not changed so much that it looked like something out of a sci-fi. Carbonite for example which I love, I have to turn off when not questing or mining because it truly and utterly destroys the "warcraft flavour" I've been rabitting on about :)
I hope all that makes at least some sense :D
Aka'magosh,
James
(Infernodeath, EU-Draenor)
Aka'magosh! Thank you for the email, James. There are a few pieces of information I can give that might help you achieve that "Warcraft" look. First, ButtonFacade has a great skin (I think it still might be the default) called "Apathy." The Apathy skin has a nice back texture and reminds me of the original action bar graphics and the gryphons to the left and right side of said bars. Secondly, some action bar mods have the ability to turn back on the graphics on the sides of the actions bars, which is a good go-to, easy art selection to keep Warcraft looking like Warcraft. I'm sure the commenters will have plenty to say about this issue, however, so get requestin'!
Finally, if you love Power Auras, then I have got the contest for you!
Power Auras needs you (to win this contest!)
Power Auras is a big deal for many people. It's one of those addons that fundamentally changed the way I played World of Warcraft. This addon has an amazing following, so let's do something awesome utilizing that fan fervor.
Next week, I want to do a big spotlight on Power Auras. We have done a Power Auras spotlight in the past, but this time around we are going to get not only my insight into my favorite uses for Power Auras but the community's, as well. And here's the best part -- when you submit an entry for our little Power Auras exposé, it's your entry into winning a WoW TCG loot card! The powers that be have given me both a Tiny and Party G.R.E.N.A.D.E. cards, so two random contributors will get a card.
Here's the deal: Submit your favorite uses for Power Auras, including the actual code if you would like (it helps), before Friday, May 7, 2010. Sending in multiples doesn't get you a better chance -- just one entry per person. Let's see if we can pool lots of community resources together and make a really awesome repository of Power Auras for all the people our there who don't know how incredibly awesome this addon is.
Send your Power Auras ideas/submissions/code to mat@wow.com, with Power Auras in the subject. 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 2 of 2)
Jack Mynock May 5th 2010 10:04AM
I had the exact same experience, disliking the appearance of the UI until I realized the size of his screen. One thing that I recommend is, as you get more comfortable with your keybindings, wean yourself from the action bars altogether, as we've seen in a few other UIs. Especially on a smaller screen, this would free up tons of space--a full third of what you're using now. And it's not something that needs be done all at once; rather, you can drop them over a period of time as you become more comfortable.
Nice job.
BoomingEchoes May 5th 2010 9:45AM
This is a good start and like all UI's I imagine Crazy is going to be tweeking it for a while but one thing I see is that he maybe falling into the same problem as he was with Spartan, the problem with my opinion though is that you really don't get the idea of what his eye is seeing on a small laptop screen though a screen capture, so bare with my assessment.
The problem he/you (if your still watching this post Crazy) was/were having when dealing with Spartan was the screen clutter and how it took up a lot of space at the bottom of the screen with a graphic. While it seems the graphic clutter was eliminated it was replaced with just one big bar across the entire bottom of the screen, which looks like it mostly contains the chat frame*, which runs the risk of becoming like Spartan in its design. (*using my figures as a ruler, cause I didn't have one on hand, the chat frame is about the size of your button/unitframe area while in the mind to eye conversion the chat looks bigger)
You can eliminate about some of that area your seeing and bring your UI in tighter towards the middle if you move the chat frame off to the left side, dock it outside the Kgpanel, resize it by maybe a quarter of its size horizontally and make it mostly transparent except for the text, which if needed can be outlined to enhance visibility. This will make it appear as if you don't have a chat frame (unless you mouse over the frame, then the visibility perks up) while giving you more space to see your surrounding and not eliminating your ability to see your chat when people are talking.
Another thing is Skada/meters in general.. I see you pvp but you don't need threat or dps meters for that, dps doesn't matter as much as survival and meters don't help survival, so Skada or any thing else is wasted there. And again, as I said in my lengthy comment last time around, needing to know dps as a tank only helps in raids that feel like the dps classes aren't preforming well, as an assessment tool. I hope that your not in a situation like that often, but if you aren't you don't need a dps meter as a tank. And in that one picture where it looks like your in Holy spec you don't really need to know dps that bad either, and if your using it to gauge your healing there are numerous posts around this site and many others stating how metering heals is just short of absurd... Conclusion, again, you can at least eliminate any dps meter functions if your dealing with limited space.
Another thing I noticed with myself and Skada between the last time we all talked about your UI and now is that the switch between Skada's 2 meters bogged down my computer, which is a pretty powerful machine, and I can imagine it does the same, if not worse, on a laptop. To me it feels like the strain Skada causes is internal to the Mod and how it reacts to your video functions, having these meters in 2 seperate mods seems to take that strain away. You may wish to keep that in mind, as well as my findings that Omen and Recount do very well on top of one another but swapped during a fight (Omen up during the fight, recount up after).. If you really really need both meters I suggest doing that with whatever mod(s) your using and keeping them off to the right like you have them BUT not within the bounds of the Kgpanel, this will allow you to fade the background of the mod into a transparency so you can see through it during and after fights. I also suggest, with this set up I propose, to hide both while solo, which will make the mods appear as if they aren't there at all.
To save even more space I recommend taking the bag bar and making it one button and grabbing a bag mod, this eliminates the space for the bags that some would call wasted. In the same vain I would take the micro bar, the bar with things like the LFG button or the Talents button, and making it horizontal and fading it above your UI like you have your buffs/auras as it will also clear up space some would say is wasted while not getting rid of it 100% (I still use mine too even though I know there's keybinds for it).
Recently I switched away from Cowtip, an old staple of my UI's, and If your looking to tone down your memory footprint like your saying your looking to with Skada I recommend ditching it and getting Tiptac. Tiptac right out of the box is much smaller both in memory usage and design while being much more customizable then Cowtip. (Sorry Cowtip, your great but your bulky)
Grid. Well to assess this we need to see you in a raid to get the full brunt of what it looks like when there's a large amount of people in the group. How much room it takes up on your screen is the linchpin of your UI and if it ends up taking up a great deal of your space then you really did put yourself back at square one. The way it looks you stretched the bars out so you can see more, which is fine but you run the risk of overwhelming your screen like I said.. Also I'm not sure if your showing it here just so it can be seen but in situations where your solo I'm sure you know it doesn't have to be shown at all, so I hope your hiding it when solo -If not then I suggest limiting Shadowed Unit frames, if you can, to just showing your target and keeping Grid there for your personal frame, which will cut down slightly on the amount of things on your screen.
Finally, something you seem troubled by: Boarders.. I have the same issue you have in that I like my UI to look like Blizzard had a hand in making it. Personally if I wanted sleek squared design I'd go to Ikea, and If i wanted flashy and futuristic I'd go play Star Trek.. So in my UI I've used Texbrowser to find Blizzards UI textures and found a boarder in the files that's similar to the one that's around the stock minimap but more rectangular so it goes well around a Kgpanel. Using that in conjunction with sexymap to make my map look like a scaled stock map without without all the button clutter I've been able to make a centralized bottom of the screen map docked bar (that's a mouthful) to house my buttons that looks like Blizzard could have come up with it if they wanted to give us sleek options for our UI. I recommend finding Texbrowser and doing the same, when the pathway is entered into sexymap's interface it appears to place a copy of the pathed file into your shared media folder so that it can be used across most, if not all, your addons; which Like Jeff Lebowski once said about a very special carpet, really brings the whole room together.
Crazyates May 5th 2010 11:34AM
Thanks for your suggestions.
I have switched from skada back to omen and recount, hiding recount in combat and omen out of combat. I started using this to compare the T10 2pc bonus (i liked recounts pie chart summaries), and found it worked just as good if not better.
I'm still working with Grid (40 man WG is not very appealing to the eyes). I'll check out hiding it while solo, and am thinking about extending it down the left hand side (straight down from where it is now).
As i tweak things and get them where i want, i'll prolly add borders and proper spacing into the mix. Remember, this is still a work in progress :P
Thanks again
-Crazyates
edersons May 5th 2010 10:06AM
Hmm, its just me, or there isnt a link to download this UI?
Or we are supposed to actualy look at wowinterface/curse for each addon, and do th
edersons May 5th 2010 10:07AM
Correction:
Hmm, its just me, or there isnt a link to download this UI?
Or we are supposed to actualy look at wowinterface/curse for each addon, and do the modificafications to do a test drive as in the screen shots?
PS: WTB Edit Button
knotoc May 5th 2010 10:07AM
How do you get your bag and menu bars to rotate 90 degrees like that?
Crazyates May 5th 2010 11:34AM
I used Bartender to lower the number of rows and increase the columns. You can put any bar vertical like that.
-Crazy
el ranchero May 5th 2010 11:44AM
Wow, Crazyates, that is so much better!
I have a couple more minor suggestions if you're still looking for them, but they partially relate to gameplay. With your little screen, I'm looking for ways to clean off as much space for the battlefield as possible. I think you made a good decision getting rid of Omen and Recount.
What do you think about getting rid of Skada as well?
I don't think Skada measures anything that you need to know right then and there. It's nice to know your dps during the raid (less so for a prot/holy paladin, though), but you can always read the logs later. Same with hps, and the deaths log. The only information you need to know immediately is threat, but if you're a paladin, you probably don't have much trouble with threat. Plus, many unit frame addons have functionality for showing threat on the target.
I agree with Mathew, too, that you really could get rid of your bag and menu bars. They're hotkeyed; just memorize those. Hell, keep a cheatsheet with your laptop and pull it out when you're gaming if you need.
Also, you got rid of a bunch of action bars if I remember correctly, and it looks MUCH better. I still think you can ditch one more, though. I recommend 1 actionbar showing your active one and 1 action bar for stuff you'd rather click than key.
If you got rid of all those, you could shift your minimap over to where Skada was, shorten your dialog box, and probably cut another inch or two of height off of your panel.
In any case, love the new UI!
Namdrof May 5th 2010 3:42PM
@Rob47 PowerAuras is really nice for DK also IMO. I use it to track when my diseases fall off and when I get procs.