Redoing My UI
I’ve never been totally happy with the standard UI. It’s rather utilitarian, doesn’t really look all that great, and it can get a bit cluttered (especially in a raid). I’ve tried a few times to change things around and upgrade it, but I always get overwhelmed with all of the choices out there and end up throwing in the towel and going back to the standard settings.
I was inspired recently though, by some discussion on my realm forums and by Lassirra’s new look, to try my hand at things again. This time I’m going to go at it more slowly and deliberately so I don’t get overwhelmed, and I won’t give up till I’m happy with how things look!
Here are a couple screenies to show where I’m starting from. I want to show how things look in a raid, but didn’t have any good screenshots already, so I just hopped into an AV for a quick minute.
Raid, not in combat.
Raid, in combat.
You can really see how cluttered things get, especially when I’m in combat. I’d like to open up the screen some so I can see more of the game and not have hotbars, raid frames, and addons in my field of vision. Also, in an attempt to keep things simple, I’m going to try and use the same UI for each of my characters as much as possible. Some individual tweaks are inevitable, but I’d like to keep things as simple as I can.
Table of contents for Redoing My UI
- Redoing My UI
- Redoing My UI: Bartender
- Redoing My UI: X-Perl
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I’ll be interested in seeing how you do with this. I’ll admit I’m getting a bit cluttered myself on the screen, and I don’t have nearly the amount you do. But the question I have is do alternatives encompass folks like me who trigger their abilities using the keyboard, not clicking on it with a mouse (Well, there’s some I have to click, but in combat I trigger everything from the number pad)? I’ll agree that Blizzard could use about a %50 reduction on their current UI size tho (save the minimap) and still have good visibility. If it added an extra row of slots even, it’d be worth it.
- Polecat
To be honest, I’m not sure what is out there to improve things for keyboard users. I know that there are several programs designed to help with key-bindings, but I’ve never really explored them to any extent. If I come across something that I think might help you, I’ll be sure to give it a mention.
Thanks, I appreciate it. I just found my reaction time is a LOT faster if I use the keyboard then if I use the mouse. With the mouse I have to watch my pointer, and not the action, with the keyboard, I learn where everything is instinctually and can watch the combat and the lifebars to keep myself from getting killed. My only hazard is hitting the key too fast for my global recharge…
- Polecat
In your Video options, if you check the “UI Scale” option, and move the slider below it, you’ll get yourself a bit more screen space.
@ Polecat - I agree about the reaction time. The only reason I’ve never switched to a full-time keyboard user is, since I play so many alts, it’d be difficult for me to learn 4 or 5 different key-sets. But I am trying to use it more. I think redoing my UI will probably help things a bit as well.
@ Lassirra - I have played around with that in the past, but when I change the UI Scale, the UI graphics become a bit distorted and things start to look fuzzy and out of focus. The first time I tried it, I enjoyed the extra screen space, but the fuzzy graphics bothered me too much to stay with it like that. I’m not sure if that is particular to my computer or if everyone experiences it.
Oddly enough learning multiple characters doesn’t bother me. I have a pally, a Warlock, a Rogue, a Fighter, a Druid, and I’ve just started toying with a hunter. Once I start putting stuff down, within a few fights I know where everything is, regardless of the toon. Just habit I guess, or I have a method to my madness I haven’t yet figured out.
- Polecat