OlsonUI (New Author)...

[solson8691]

Hi, everyone! My main character in WoW is a level 90 female dwarf hunter named Mairna. I just uploaded my customUI to the WoWInterface database, and I would really appreciate it if you took a look at it. Helpful comments and thoughtful questions would be most appreciated. "OlsonUI" can be found here:

http://www.wowinterface.com/download...1920x1080.html

This is the first time that I've felt confident enough uploading a custom UI to this website. I designed my custom UI to be easy to see and and interpret, especially when reading text. I found a lot of other custom UI's, particularly the "minimalistic ones," to hide a lot of key information, as well as be too tiny to see well. I wear bifocals, and I use a 23"" HD monitor at 1920 x 1080 resolution as my main monitor, so I wanted to be able to easily see the UI elements at a glance. This custom UI is neither perfect nor very fancy, but it is functional, and hopefully, adaptable and customizable for anyone who wants to use it.

I hope you like what you see. Please comment, and try it out. Thanks. Have a great day!

[Phanx]

The placement of elements in the UI seems totally random. Alignment and spacing are wildly inconsistent. No two elements have the same amount of space between them, and no edge of anything lines up with anything else.

Your minimap border looks strange and doesn't match anything else. The minimap header seems to have gotten shifted to the left for no apparent reason.

Having unit frames so far away from each other does not seem very efficient, as you will constantly have to shift your visual focus, or lose track of your own health. Same for the focus frame -- if it's not near where you are looking, you have to remember to shift your gaze to check on it, or just forget about it entirely, in which case it's kind of pointless to have it at all.

As a hunter, you don't really need raid frames at all, but you certainly don't need such enormous raid frames right in the middle of the screen. Shrink them down, move them off to the side (the bottom right corner area seems open), and then center your action bars.

Rather than forcibly hiding the quest tracker, I'd suggest just minimizing it by clicking the small arrow button at the top, and/or turning off auto-tracking in the game's Objectives options. Both of these methods would keep the tracker from taking up space, but would not prevent you (or users) from tracking things when desired without wading through MoveAnything's options. Either way, if there is no visible quest tracker, why is there still space for it in the upper right corner? Rather than having a chat box that wraps lines after 2 words, why not make the chat box wider so it fills up that space to the right?

Xperl seems like a strange choice for someone with vision issues. I don't use bifocals, but I do have quite a strong prescription and moderate astigmatism, and I can't imagine that those cluttered frames with mottled textures are optimal for visibility for you (or anyone else). Even if you like the look (personally, I think it's quite hideous) I'd highly recommend that you change the bar texture to something less swirly so the text is more readable.

[solson8691]

Boy, you really know how to make a new uploader feel bad. I generously devoted my time and effort to compiling my UI, as well as uploading it to this website (which took considerable time, mind you), and all I got from you was negative commentary. You had nothing positive at all to say about my custom UI. It works for me, so what is the harm in that? You think it's ugly, and stupid, and random, and senseless. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." If I continue to receive such negative commentary, it is highly unlikely that I will update my UI for this website, or compile any new ones, for that matter. In the future, please consider your comments carefully before you write them.

[Coote]

You need to learn to take criticism, whether it be good or bad. Phanx wasn't being a negative nanny, just giving some criticism, and suggestions. Accepting criticism, whether you want it or not, is one of the things that will help you get further in the end. Don't let it get you down, and don't take any offense at it. If you enjoy your UI, and it works for you, then all the power to you. Phanx was just trying to help.

[VincentSDSH]

Originally Posted by solson8691 Boy, you really know how to make a new uploader feel bad.

Posting something for review (your words were "Helpful comments and thoughtful questions would be most appreciated") and getting upset at an analysis seems...odd. Rarely does one get accolades when one asks for 'helpful comments' as this is generally interpreted as "please tell me what's wrong with it and why so that I can improve it, or at least defend the decisions made." And when it comes to UI design, you will find more people who dislike anything you produce than those that like it, since rarely to objects of that size meet the needs of a a sufficient number of people.

If something "works for you" then don't upload it; if you upload it for others, it will be evaluated quite appropriately relative to the needs and sensibilities of others. I've coded my own unit frames, HUD, UI base, imbedded functions, map, pet/mount controls, seed/farming tools, and way, way too many many other things to list. It's all compact and unbloated and tailored to my needs and esthetically pleasing. It will never get uploaded anywhere simply because it's highly unlikely it'd work for anyone else, and few would waste a moment telling me so.

You should take Phanx's critique to heart as nothing in there is unreasonable and I'd dare say it's quite common in terms of what users would say. It was also brief, as there's a lot more that could be constructively critiqued.

Embrace constructive criticism and critical analysis: it's not meant to soothe your ego, it's meant to provide a better product for users which, as an author, should be your central goal (unless you were just posting to stroke your ego).

[Thubz]

Originally Posted by solson8691 Boy, you really know how to make a new uploader feel bad. I generously devoted my time and effort to compiling my UI, as well as uploading it to this website (which took considerable time, mind you), and all I got from you was negative commentary. You had nothing positive at all to say about my custom UI. It works for me, so what is the harm in that? You think it's ugly, and stupid, and random, and senseless. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." If I continue to receive such negative commentary, it is highly unlikely that I will update my UI for this website, or compile any new ones, for that matter. In the future, please consider your comments carefully before you write them.

Welcome to the world of sharing UI's.
Problem is if you wish to share your UI be ready to take loads of critics people are never happy enough etc,
but it shouldn't stop you from doing what you do!
i did try to share my own UI, i just can't figure out .lau my self but working onit tho.
And aslong as YOU like your UI who cares right?
Altho people like to see some custom artwork etc to make your UI that one of a kind people wish to download.

This is my UI i've been working on;


Not everyone will like it ofcourse but im sure there people who are and thats the people you should do it for.
ofcourse its nice if a other author likes your work but yeah thats not always the case but they shouldn't be your main goal, focus on those who like it instead of those who dislike it. (No offense phanx)

good luck with your project,
and remember dont let 1blow get you down.

[Phanx]

Originally Posted by solson8691 You had nothing positive at all to say about my custom UI.

You asked for helpful comments. Saying "omg its so pritty!" isn't helpful; it's just vapid praise. If you only want praise, and not any suggestions on what to improve (or why it needs improvement) you should make that very clear in your request for feedback, or just not request feedback at all.

If it works for you, that's great. Nobody else can design a better UI for you than yourself, and it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks if you just want something that works for you.

However, if you're looking to produce something that's appealing and usable for others -- and since you have uploaded your UI for others to download, that seems like your goal -- it needs a lot of work. I'm sorry if that hurts your feelings, but I'm not going to sugarcoat it. You're asking for feedback from a community that dedicates a lot of time to designing WoW UIs, many of whom (myself included) have actual jobs in a design-related field. While your UI may have taken you a lot of time to arrange in a way that works or you, to me (and likely others) it looks like a bunch of addons with default settings, placed haphazardly without consideration for even the most basic tenets of UI design.

Likewise, if I went to a restaurant known for its pork sausage, and asked the chef to tell me what he thought about my homemade pork sausage, I wouldn't expect him to praise me for the time and effort I put into it, even though I personally think it's pretty tasty. I'd expect him to just tell me what he thought of the end result, and since I know I'm not a professional cook, I'd expect his comments to be mostly, if not entirely, critical.

Originally Posted by solson8691 I generously devoted my time and effort to compiling my UI, as well as uploading it to this website (which took considerable time, mind you), ...

If you didn't enjoy making your UI, or don't feel like making it was its own reward, then this is probably not the hobby for you. Telling us how generous you are to have spent considerable time zipping up other people's addons and uploading your settings is not a strategy that will lead to either the success of your UI, or to your own satisfaction. I'm sure there are plenty of other things you'd enjoy doing for their own sake, without feeling cheated when the result doesn't garner praise and approval from others.

[Dridzt]

Tbh I find this misconstrued idea of professionalism obnoxious myself and the whole "rah rah toughen up! or get out" a bit ridiculous.
You can critique someone without over-dramatizing, especially someone that comes to the site with

This is the first time that I've felt confident enough uploading a custom UI to this website.

It's called empathy and doesn't reflect bad on your professionalism.
I mean just by skipping "totally", "wildly", "hideous" and the gameplay tutoring that is imho out of place(*) "As a hunter, you don't really need raid frames at all" there is no useful information lost and the tone of the same exact post would be entirely different.

* I've been using raidframes on dps (alts) for a variety of reasons
(be it that some dps have curing abilities or just that all dps can be interested in aggro shifts or they act in a raid leading capacity and need a better overview of raid status or they want the convenience of click-casting MD)
They're not as prominent or detailed as on my healer alts for example but they're still useful for me.

[contramundi]

Even though phanx tends to come up a bit harsh sometimes, after reading through his comment i can honestly say, that he's only providing positive criticism here. The way phanx comes across to other people is just the way he is and getting worked up over it isn't really worth the time and effort.

That said, phanx is right, the placement of your addons is just, to put it blunt, hideous. The fact that you can play with it, thats specifically because its tailored to how you like the ui

to be honest, the first few UI's i've thrown together for myself, where aproximately the same, however, i feel like i can do more and better since i've started using elvui/decui, or any other compilation wich has the info i need/want but more or less more compact and easier on the eyes.

A few pointers at this point from my end:

1) put the unitframes closer together at a spot where you see them everytime you look at your screen in a glance.

As a hunter you need to see within a matter of seconds what the remaining HP of yourself, your enemy and your pet is. This way you can act to it quicker with feign death if yours is too low, or for example the talent that restores your pet full health (can't quite remember the name) when that one is getting too low.

2) raid frames, only healers benefit from having them in the center of the screen, as a hunter your not really benefiting from them, the only thing you need are the main tank windows for misdirect the only reason they could be beneficial is when most of the raid starts to die and you then can quickly decide to use feign death

3) Treathmeter, also at a spot where you can see within seconds if your getting too much aggro from a mob over the tank.

Try to keep it clean by putting addons where they are visible but not intrusive, i've leveled a hunter not too long ago, and to be honest, i had to use my freezing trap quite often in pandaria zones, due to mobs not always coming from exactly the same direction, its much easier to be able to shoot the trap withouth
having an addon or window in my way.


What i would try and advise, backup your current WTF and Interface folder, and install a compilation from wowinterface. See how people have put theirs together and work your way from there. You'll notice that most of the compilations here are aproximately the same in how their addon placement is.

Most of the addon placement is just a matter of getting used to, but the most important part is that no matter what compilation you have, they follow a somewhat basic rule: "all the needed information needed at a quick glance"

Last but not least, you have quite a "big" resolution, with the space you have, you can place most of it closer together and even then have a huge load of room left

[Phanx]

Originally Posted by Dridzt ... the gameplay tutoring that is imho out of place(*) "As a hunter, you don't really need raid frames at all"

In my experience, most people just throw everything they can on the screen, without actually taking any time to consider whether the information is actually valuable, or valuable enough to justify dedicating screen space to it. If nobody ever says "hey, I don't think you need that" they will never think about it, and they'll just keep adding more and more stuff to their screen until it looks like this:

[contramundi]

Originally Posted by Phanx .....

<the reason people miss buffs in raids and players don't respond to raidchat>

o dear....... phanx you don't honestly play like that do you?

Anyhow, jokes aside, that is a very good example of a very bad interface, there's no way to see what your doing besides on a small area on your screen, this ofc also means that you can't function in groups/raids the way you could do if you make sure you can see whats happening around you.

Olson, there's 2 things you should need to keep in mind when building an UI:

1) have all the need to know info at a spot where you can see it at a glance, as said earlier, you should have a spot on your screen where there's your unitframes/threathmeter/chat/etc that you can turn your head to see the info within seconds without needing to look at different parts of the monitor.

2) make sure you have lots of free room on your screen so you can see whats happening around you and act to it a lot quicker. The screenshot from phanx is a really really bad example of an UI, haven't seen one of those in years here , but he makes a good point with it, albeit a bit off-topic as your screen is less cluttered

[Thubz]

Seems like he ain't gonna reply