Reader UI of the Week: Aanye's UI
by Mathew McCurley 
Sep 7th 2010 at 11:00AM
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.
Welcome, friends, to another Reader UI of the Week. It has been an exciting week for addons ... sort of. User interface customization has been enabled on the Cataclysm beta servers, and addon authors are working hard to create some awesome new mods. Hopefully, in the near future, we will be getting some cool new user interfaces coming out of beta, as well as addons and changes.
In the meantime, we've got some awesome user interfaces to cover. Today's reader submission comes from Aanye on the Cenarius realm. Using Fizzik's UI as inspiration and a set of UI-defining requirements, Aanye has gone and made a very capable and very slim laptop user interface for himself. Let's take a look.
Take it away, Aanye:
Hi Mat,
You could consider my UI a "reader response" to the Fizziks' Mk. 2 UI. I had always been afraid of becoming too dependent on custom UIs: patch comes out, I log in for a raid, all hell breaks loose and nothing works ... Not an ideal scenario. I only just started playing around with them to accommodate my data broker fixation ... But when I saw Fizziks' new UI, I was inspired. I set out to build my own UI, with a few requirements:
- Compact I play on a laptop, so pixel space is limited.
- Top and sides uncluttered Most of my toons are tanks, and I like a wide, open view of the room.
- Modeled after the stock UI layout I wanted to keep action bars compatible with stock in case the UI ever breaks.
- Sexy Like Fizziks' UI. 'Nuff said.
After weeks of tinkering -- and driving my wife crazy, as it's taken me twice as long to do anything in-game because I'm always messing with an addon -- I finally got it just right.
The key addons:
- Stuf
- Dominos w/ ButtonFacade
- Skada
- kgPanels
- ChocolateBar (with lots and lots of data sources)
- Quartz
- Healbot (used for heals, cures, and raid frames)
- Prat
- TipTac
- Who Framed Watcher Wabbit
- Fontain
- Baggins (not pictured, but single-handedly the most useful add-on I've ever installed)
Aside from just looking cool and having a cinematic feel (which I really dig), this has actually improved my playing a bit. Most of my time, my eyes are trained on the bottom-middle quarter of the screen, so my eyes aren't "seeking" as much as they used to. I was afraid I'd get tunnel vision while tanking, but I find this actually makes it easier on my eyes for spotting movement or alerts like stray adds, extra pulls, peeled threat, etc. And having the cast bar, target health and action bar so close together has really helped my damage and rotations on my DPS toons. And with the exception of player/target frames and stance/pet bars, everything is more or less in its default place -- so when the next patch day rolls around, I should survive.
I gotta thank Fizziks for his truly awe-inspiring UI. And my wife, Llaewynn, for putting up with my tinkering between pulls. :)
-- Aanye, Cenarius
Thank you for the submission and email, Aanye. It is so awesome to get emails like this one, because it shows what this column is all about -- helping the WoW.com community inspire one another to improve their gameplay experience. There is nothing better than hearing that a profiled user interface pushed people to work on an aspect of their game that they were hesitant to work on before.
Aanye's UI is compact and well positioned -- and with good reason. Taking my (hopefully) sage advice, Aanye started out with a set of goals and guidelines about what his interface should be and built from there. Boundaries are key!
Whenever you see a shot like the interface screenshot above, the "before" picture from Aanye's submission, your mind immediately tells you that this is a default user interface will little to no customization. If you notice, all of those types of interfaces look exactly the same. One thing that these interfaces have in common is clutter that is not dealt with in a coherent manner. Clutter is fine, so long as the clutter is managed correctly.
There are three excellent ways to manage clutter. Each of these examples are illustrated in Aanye's before and after pictures, which is very helpful and fortunate! You'd think I would have written it that way.
Addon usefulness and importance
The first is that, after incorporating an addon into your interface, you don't exactly know how much you will be using it, referring to its information, or its importance relative to other addons. The big offenders here are usually Recount, Skada or Omen -- many people do not, in the beginning, know how little they will be checking their DPS and threat meters. In the before shots, Aanye's DPS and threat meters are much more prominent, larger and closer to the center, because in the beginning, I'm sure Aanye probably thought those would be important addons, since DPS and threat are important variables to watch during fights. After a while, however, you realize that the DPS and threat meters are important -- but not front-and-center important -- so they are moved to the bottom right, flush against the new action bar setup. The trick is to use an addon for a while before moving into its permanent new home, since you'll have a better idea of where and when you are reliant on said addons.
The second tip is that spacing is always important, especially when dealing with your unit frames. Aanye originally used the default unit frame setup, which works for some but is vastly inferior, due to the information these unit frames provide. Customization is also extremely limited and the spacing is awful. Look at how much space the default unit frames take up! It's ridiculous. You deserve something that takes up a lot less space.
Once you switch up your unit frames, you'll notice an immediate change in the amount of screen space saved. The entire upper-left side of the screen becomes free to use for other purposes or just a more streamlined setup. Aanye has decided to go with a simple rectangular setup for the group, while moving the player frame and target frame to the bottom, above the action bars. The default unit frames are some of the biggest space-wasters you can find -- change them to regain lots of space.
Keeping the general style of the default user interface is a great guide for building your own custom setup. The differences you make, however, streamline the substance of the UI and refine the style and positions. Take the two side action bars -- Aanye keeps the bars from the original UI but sizes and scales them down, applies some better shapes and textures, and keeps the general feel but changes the look. Keeping the theme of the default UI isn't the sin -- keeping the inefficiencies, however, is the mistake.
Thank you very much for the submission, Aanye. Great job! Your UI is a clean, all-around slick setup that does exactly what it sets out to accomplish. You set your goals and met them wonderfully. Even better is that you were inspired by your fellow community members. If you are ever inspired by the UIs you see here, let me know -- we love success stories here at WoW.com, and knowing people are getting some real good help from the columns warms my happy little heart.
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, or visit Addons 101 for help getting started.Filed under: Add-Ons, Reader UI of the Week
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Mike Sep 7th 2010 11:10AM
One of the biggest culprits I keep seeing for clutter is action bars. I see so many people with every action bar enabled and completely full, when there really is no need. Macros can eliminate a lot, by combining similar or shared-cooldown abilities to a single button. A prime example would be Lightning and Water Shield, or various Shocks, for Shaman. I have a mouseover-based pull macro on my Paladin, that casts Righteous Defense on a friendly target, Hand of Reckoning on an enemy target, or Avenger's Shield on an enemy target when I'm holding shift. The list of short, useful macros like this goes on and on and it really saves a lot of space.
Another excellent addition for reducing clutter in the default UI with regards to action bars is iPopBar. It's an addon that replaces the micro menu and bag bar with another action bar. Between iPopBar and macros, I have no additional bars enabled and I actually have free space on the bars I have.
RetPallyJil Sep 7th 2010 12:09PM
Macros are for sissies. Hit those keys, ya lazy bum.
Mike Sep 7th 2010 12:14PM
I am hitting keys. Just combinations of keys :)
I should clarify though. I don't have a single macro that uses more than one ability at the same time. It's just a bunch of buttons that do different things depending on modifier keys or combat status or chosen spec, or adds announcements (such as "Have some free mana!" for Mana Tide Totem, or "BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL, I HAVE THE POWER!" for Bloodlust).
stalphyr Sep 7th 2010 4:52PM
A Truly inspiring UI. Gives me ideas to Improve my UI as well Thank you for Showing your UI Ideas and what Mods you use. Got me in the mood to mess with mine and tweak it more and the wifes she wants it like the default ui but slimed down. Great article as well.
Thom Sep 7th 2010 1:28PM
I make quite a bit of use of macros, especially for situational combat choices. Never really thought to use them for screen space, but it's a neat idea.
One thing I didn't go into detail about in my submission was my choice for the sizing of the addons and the "utility" of each.
* The main action bar are all of my normal rotation and other major combat abilities.
* The right action bars are all of my "must-have" buffs and my major cooldowns.
* The half-size secondary action bars on bottom are my sometimes buffs, my "maybe I'll use this once or twice ever" abilities, my Mounted macro and other non-combat abilities.
Wasn't sure if I fell into the good or bad on your litmus test, as I do have all of my bars turned on, but they're not full-sized. Just thought I'd share. ;)
Mike Sep 7th 2010 1:39PM
I use a similar method of organization, actually. I've keybinded some of the buttons on the secondary bar (the one iPopBar makes) to backtick (`), R, and Z, and use a similar structure for all characters.
Z is always my interrupt/stun. Wind Shear, Kick, Hammer of Justice, Mind Freeze, etc.
R is always my opener. Call of the Elements, the Righteous Defense/Hand of Reckoning/Avenger's Shield macro, Death Grip, Stealth, Hunter's Mark, etc. For casters, R is my primary nuke spam.
` is always my HIT NOW button. Buttons where something happens and I want to make sure I hit it right away, like Hammer of Righteousness or Lightning Bolt w/MW5.
1 is pretty much for short-term buffs I need to refresh, particularly for Lightning/Water Shield and Holy Shield.
2+ are my combat abilities, generally in order of priority. Like Judgement/Shield of Righteoussness/Hammer of Righteousness/Consecrate/Holy Wrath.
T is auto-attack/auto-shot.
All my cooldowns are on the right (iPopBar) bar at the far end for quick access. They aren't keybinded since I need to make sure I hit the right one (don't want to hit Bloodlust on trash when I meant to hit Shamanistic Rage for mana, for example).
For healers, I have a similar logic-based setup, but a little shaken up. All heals are mouse-bound with HealBot. Left-click is primary quick heal, right-click is primary big heal, alt+left-click is remove debuff, etc. Cooldowns are on the primary action bar where my fingers lie for quick access.
My mount used to be on a hidden action bar, using Shift+\. I've since remapped that to Livestock's smart mounting.
Anye Sep 7th 2010 2:51PM
Sounds like we're actually running very similar setups despite using quite a different set of addons!
Most of my keybindings are stock, but I do have tilde (~) bound to my Mounted addon. Livestock looks interesting... I might try it out, see if I would like to use it in place of, or in combination with, Mounted.
Mike Sep 7th 2010 2:55PM
From the look of things, Mounted continuously scans the various variables involving mounts and constantly recreates a macro to mount. I think Livestock is a bit more elegant. It allows for random mount choice, you can easily disable/enable mounts you want to be chosen, only select epic mounts if you have the skill, casting Ghost Wolf/Travel Form/Aspect of the Cheetah/etc if you can't mount or are moving, Path of Frost/Water Walking/Aquatic form if you're swimming, list goes on. Basically, a single keybind allows you to do pretty much what you want to do at any time without thinking. It can also auto-summon vanity pets, chosen at random like mounts, with various options for when not to summon it (like in a raid or flagged for PvP). It also has a safe dismounting option, preventing you from dismounting if you're in the air (you can still click the buff to dismount).
Anye Sep 7th 2010 4:33PM
I can do all those things with Mounted, although some of those things take a lot of macro surgery. I will probably give Livestock a shot to see if it's easier to work with, and/or if it fixes a few of the issues I've had with Mounted. Would save me having to run a pet addon, too.
feniks9174 Sep 7th 2010 11:13AM
While it makes sense for a laptop user, I will never stop haying the "bottom bar" setup.
All in all, though, a very clean UI. Nice work.
Pyromelter Sep 7th 2010 1:53PM
Hating the bottom bar setup? I'm not sure what that means, since even the default UI has action bars on the bottom. His action bars look fine to me.
feniks9174 Sep 7th 2010 2:22PM
What I mean is the big, black bar of addons/meters/etc sectioning off the entire bottom of the screen. I don't know why, but I never liked the approach. Probably my tunnel vision and how I need to bring information up into the playing area so I don't focus too much on CD's and my rotation while standing in Fire.
Like I said, I see how it's great for a laptop or small monitor with limited viewing space and this certainly isn't as drastic as others I've seen. I just never liked it.
Anye Sep 7th 2010 4:37PM
I was concerned about tunnel vision, too... But like I said, I found that the de-cluttering more than made up for it. My UI elements might be farther away from the "action", but because they're not interfering, I feel like I can see the fire/adds/etc. better than before.
I'm also a nut for cinematic widescreen looks, too, so that's part of why I went with the black bars. :P But to each his own.
feniks9174 Sep 7th 2010 11:16AM
While it makes sense for a laptop user, I will never stop hating the "bottom bar" approach.
A very clean UI though, nice work.
feniks9174 Sep 7th 2010 11:18AM
Post, refresh twice, still not showing up, post again, there they both are!
Stupid comment system. Downrate to oblivion.
Mike Sep 7th 2010 11:39AM
Actually upvoted so site devs might see the error and fix it. Happens all the time to me.
Stroszek Sep 7th 2010 11:44AM
This is a great ui, really sleek.
But every reader UI of the week seems to be very razor-edged and brightly coloured. One thing the default UI does better than any custom UI I've ever seen is tasteful use of unobtrusive artwork that goes with the games setting.
I know this is largely a matter of taste, but displaying information isn't the only function of a UI. It has to be pleasant to look at, as well as being useful.
jordan Sep 7th 2010 11:54AM
Do alot of you guys play on laptops?
I always felt like a nub cause I played on a laptop...
Mike Sep 7th 2010 12:16PM
Majority of computers sold now are laptops, not surprising that many people play on one.
That said, I play on my gorgeous 27" iMac and the game looks wonderful :)
Thom Sep 7th 2010 1:30PM
Some obsessive gamers scoff at those who play on a laptop, or play on a Mac, or etc. Oh well. I'm on a 1st-gen MacBook Pro (getting up in the years), and if WoW didn't play decently on a Mac or a laptop, I simply wouldn't play WoW. I'm sure Blizzard owes much of its userbase to its ability to support less powerful or less "optimal" computers.