First attempt at a UI. [Updated 3/20/13]
 

I've already posted this on another website and I've shown it to my friends that play. I'm getting good feedback so far. Anyways, I've packaged this UI into a ZIP but I'm not exactly sure if I've done it right. I'm wondering if anyone could test it out and tell me what the results are? Or if I could just get any feedback on my UI that would be fine too.

UI: http://i47.tinypic.com/2gsjqkm.jpg

EDIT [03/20/13]:

I've changed and downloaded a couple more addons and I've gotten it to my likings so far. One that isn't shown that I'm using is Aurora.


In the new LFR on my main character.


Wanted to show the skinning of my DBM bars. I downloaded !dbm and edited it a little of my own. I wanted to try and find a skin that would let me use the same border on the dbm icons that I use for my skill icons, but all of them made my WoW crash or just didn't fit in with my UI. :/

I'm using healbot right now for my raid/party frames. I really like the default blizzard UI but it's just not customizable enough. I spent all night looking for scripts that would allow me to change the texture of the bars and found nothing. But I'm content with healbot, after hours of configuration.

Does anyone know how to get rid of the banner on the top left corner of my SexyMap? I've looked and looked through the config but I swear there's nothing there.

I'm also thinking about getting rid of consolidated buffs, even though it's helpful. It's just bulky and doesn't fit in. Unless there's some sort of addon where I can skin it, I'm prolly going to get rid of it.

Any more advice would be helpful.

Not my style, but here are a couple of non-style-related suggestions:

(1) You should spend some time working on alignment. For example, the top of the unit frames is about 40px from the top of the screen, while the top of the minimap is about 20px from the top of the screen. The top and left of the unit frames are different distances from the edges of the screen. The top of the buffs should line up with the top of the minimap. The right edges of all the things on the right of the screen -- minimap, vertical action bar, boss frames, Recount -- should line up with each other. The bottom edges of the things at the bottom of the screen -- chat text, action buttons, raid frames, Recount -- should line up with each other.

(2) The bar textures on Recount and your cast bar doesn't match the textures on your unit frames, and I can't quite tell whether the boss timer bars match or not due to the screenshot quality, but you should pick one texture and use it everywhere.

(3) Your buffs are missing borders.

(4) You might consider using the same border for your action buttons that you're using for everything else (the black shadow thing) or vice versa (the thin gray line).

(5) The Radar Range window seems kind of randomly placed. You should try to line it up with something, and maybe give it a border, or hide the background.

(6) The white glow on the nameplates is out of place. Maybe try a different TidyPlates skin, or try your hand at customizing whichever skin you're using?

1. I noticed that when I first started. I'm usually more nitpicky for stuff like this but my computer is dying and I freeze in LFR when I'm only using WoW and skype. I'll mess around with that later.

2. When I took the SS I didn't mess with the bar. I didn't even know I could change the cast bar on DBM.

3. I installed an addon to border them and it should be fixed.

4. If you're talking about my stance/action bar, then I am using the same border. It's just 'thinner' and the screenshot is bad quality.

5. When I was messing with the addons I wasn't really noticing anything from DBM. I'll mess when them next time I do LFR.

6. I'll try another skin.

If you don't mind me PMing you my final result for more critiquing? And thanks a lot for the post. I appreciate it more than you know.

Just post it here. I'm not the only person who can look at screenshots and give feedback. :)

I don't think your UI is bad, necessarily, but I think it needs a bit of work.

1. Get rid of the black bar at the bottom of your screen. It does nothing but draw your eye away from the important aspects of the game, and crowd the screen.

2. Reduce the spacing between units in Grid, and your action bar buttons.

3. Find a better spot for your unit frames. Shadowed UF is a great unit frame AddOn, but you haven't addressed the main issue with Blizzard's unit frames: their position. As it stands, your eyes need to look to every extreme of the screen to ascertain information.

4. You mentioned your computer stutters in raid; get rid of recount. I don't mind damage meters, but they do not need to be showing in combat, and there are several options better than recount. (Skada, alDamageMeter, TinyDPS)

5. Texture consitency! You have different textures between sUF, cast bar, grid, name plates, and DBM.

6. Find some consistency with the spacing of UI elements. Phanx touched on this well.

7. Turn off consolidated buffs.

This isn't really a UI issue, as it isn't controlled by the custom UI or addons, and users are free to enable or disable the consolidation feature as they prefer. In fact, unless the UI ships with the compiler's Config.wtf file, the user's existing preference won't even be touched at all.

I disagree that it isn't a UI issue, and the fact that it isn't controlled by a custom AddOn isn't really relevant. Through the same logic, it is the user's choice to do every single thing they do with a custom AddOn, or through the default Blizzard settings, thus making our feedback useless in the first place.

I don't think robbing yourself of useful information should ever be encouraged in WoW, but is up to him/her, or whomever is using said UI.

I would say consolidated buffs are better left turned on, since those buffs are just useless clutter while you're in combat.

Alright. I messed around with my UI some more, thanks to everyone's suggestions, I took most things into account and changed them. I can't really find a tidyplates skin that I like better than the one I'm already using, so that didn't change. I also like the black bar at the bottom of my screen. I also like the spacing in my grid and action bars atm. When I go into a dungeon party frames will be top left.

I changed the texture consistency for the most part.

I can't really find a right place to put my Unit Frame for player and pet and target. But here's what I have now.

Out of Combat:
Attachment 7505
I know my recount is there but I like it there out of habit. I go through numbers and criticize people.

Attacking Dummies:
Attachment 7506
The unit frames show up when I enter combat. I don't like them at full opacity.

DBM and Attacking Dummies:
Attachment 7507
I can't figure out how to get rid of the range check tooltip or change the opacity of the range radar. But I moved things to where they align a bit more nicely.

It is relevant, because the OP is asking for feedback about his/her UI design, presumably with the intent of releasing it as a UI compilation for others to use. Complaining that he has buff consolidation turned on is like complaining that you don't like his screen resolution or complaining that his character's armor isn't transmogged to match. It has nothing to do with the UI design, and like I already said, if someone else downloads his addons and addon settings, their buff consolidation setting will not be affected at all.

Personally, I don't use buff consolidation because I already use a custom buff addon that supports filtering, and I just permanently hide a lot of buffs, but if I were using the default buff display, I would definitely have buff consolidation turned on, for the same reason -- it's just not worth my time and energy to spend every second of every group play session worrying about whether everyone else in the group is remembering to buff the group. I have Mark of the Wild hidden, for example, on all of my non-druid characters because I more or less trust that any druids in the group are at least marginally competent and casting their buff, and if they forget, well, it's really not the end of the world.

You've still got some alignment issues. I imported your screenshot into Photoshop and added some lines to mark the edges of things. See how there are tons of lines that are 5-20 pixels apart? You should line those edges up. (see attachment)

Usually I'm more picky with alignment and stuff, like by the pixel. I used to do graphic design awhile back, so I notice it but it's really hard to align things PERFECTLY in game because you can't really zoom in like you can on photoshop. I'll have to work on it.

You can get an addon like Align (or similar) to help yourself out, if you like.

I'll try it out tomorrow and post results. I might just love you if it's a good addon. :]

If you're comfortable checking alignment in Photoshop, there is no reason why you can't use screenshots to aid in your adjustments.

There's also LineemUp which you can use for single, movable, horizontal and vertical lines. By single, I just mean that you create each line individually, but you can have as many on the screen as you want to put there. Please check the link on the page I linked for instructions on its' use.

Normally things would be okay and I could do it without an addon, but my current computer is currently dying. My skype freezes 24/8 and I can hardly play WoW. So running photoshop and WoW at the same time would be a huge issue as I can hardly converse with my friends and play. I'd go into more detail but I'm getting a new comp in a few weeks.

Thanks! I'll definitely check it out.

Edit: Addon must be out of date. It's not working for me. D:

Okay, that is just ridiculous. Comparing a UI element to transmog, or screen resolution has absolutely no correlation. Well...maybe screen resolution does, but regardless. It is strikingly obvious that the UI is his or hers, and isn't being put together JUST to be released. Having consolidated buffs on or off is a valid critique for his or her UI, and one that I am going to stand by. The majority of users aren't even aware that you can turn it on or off, as it was turned on by default when the feature was added. If the buffs hidden by consolidation are what is "cluttering" your UI, you have so much more to worry about. Not to mention, the lack of awareness is probably what makes LFR and the dungeon finder so miserable.

Anyways, I think you made some good improvements to your UI, especially with the movement of your unit frames. You'll find it is a lot easier to manage all of the information in WoW, when you aren't looking to every single extreme on the monitor.

Skype is just a terribly designed program. It's had a gigantic memory leak for years, the UI is awful, and it randomly re-delivers messages that were sent days, weeks, or even months ago. :(

If you don't think 30 buff icons are more cluttery than 10 buff icons, then we're just not on the same page about what the word "clutter" means. I define "clutter" as "stuff I don't need on the screen". Buff consolidation doesn't remove the ability to see any buffs. It just hides the icons for a few specific, long-term group buffs -- and you can still see those by mousing over the consolidation icon.

Maybe I just have amazing luck, but I can't even remember the last time I had a bad dungeon finder experience, let alone one so bad I'd call it "miserable". Everyone steamrolls everything wearing quest reward green gear, and wipes are really rare, maybe 1 in 20 runs.

Also, if your dungeon finder group experience is really that bad, I'd have a hard time believing that a missing Mark of the Wild is even a contributing factor, let alone the sole cause of the problem.

Yeah skype is the only thing I use at the moment to communicate with everyone. We're thinking about getting a mumble server soon and I'm looking forward to that.

And you're lucky. I usually get horrible groups in LFR. Since you can glitch your way in without having the required ilvl, a lot of the times the bosses enrage because people are hardly pulling 40k dps. ;~;

*

I fixed most of my alignment issues using eAlign from curse or whatever. (I honestly forget what it was called). I'll update with a screenshot in a couple of hours. Thanks everyone by the way, I really appreciate it.

I doubt it. I think it's more likely that you're just extremely unlucky. I run LFR all the time and I've never hit an enrage timer. I've experienced wipes due to other reasons, but they are always few and far between. The only thing difficult about LFR is the amount of time you have to spend waiting in queue (unless you're a healer or join with one).