How do YOU design your UI?
Just a bit curious how others go through their UI design process.
- I personally start with my Action Bars. I place and arrange them until I'm comfortable with their placement and look. - Next I look at the minimap. Do what's necessary for it. The bars are then tweaked if needed to accommodate. - Unit Frames generally come third if I plan on keeping them at the top. If I want them towards the center or bottom, I like to get my chat window set up before them. - Buff bars/windows come in, followed by and Alert / Proc / Cooldown type stuff. - All this is followed by placement of whatever Boss Mod I'm using at the moment. If feeling really creative that day, I may put in some aesthetic panels of some sort. How do you design yours? |
How I Design my UI
I usually start with placement of actionbar buttons, then adjusting Recount, Omen and other things that inhibit my monitor space. I always follow a texture theme though, makes me crazy when I don't have anything matching.
Edit:If I'm starting a warrior or DK alt, I always put the stance/presence bar right on top of my action bars. Also, my micro menu is for some reason different for all my characters. Usually on the left side though. |
Minimap -> Action Bars -> Chat Windows -> Misc
I use CFM to make sure everything is exactly where I want it to be. |
hide action bars with dominos, let oPanel handle oChat, loot, Omen and Recount, oCD for cooldowns, NeedToKnow for procs and debuffs, oUF with my layout and done.
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I generally just start fiddling around. Sometimes it's an action bar idea. sometimes it's a unit frame position or layout. I just start messing around with elements until something starts to happen. Sort of a free form design process if you will.
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Unit frames and action bars
Chat Skada + DBM The fluff... aka latency, cd bar, stat display, extra action bars, and whatever else I want to look at atm The theme to tie it all together *sometimes this comes first if its alot of graphics so i get stuff positioned correctly on it* |
I start off with unit frames always first. They are generally the focus in a interface, then kgPanels. I usually do actionbars last, which leaves me blank.. lol
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I always start with some sort of texture art pannel and design my UI's around it.
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I start out by figuring where i definitely don't want stuff (where i want to be able to see the world frame), then i'll usually start with action bars followed by unit frames then map(s), then i add in all the other stuff anywhere that makes some sense. then i repeat all of that a couple times until i think i like it. so in the end, everything's position is based on another element but nothing was particularly the beginning or end for where itself or anything else is.
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I generally start off with UF's - I pop open StUF and twiddle all the little sliders until I get an idea, and then build from that. From there, I tend to make minor changes to actionbars, kgPanels, skada, quest tracker, reputation bars, autobar, guppet, chat, minimap, the 4000 broker launchers I have, etc, etc... A cascading waterfall of "Okay, move it one pixel... done!"
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First I do all the useless crap(autosell, error hiding, etc), then I start with the minimap, then the actionbars, misc mods(omen, recount, etc), buffs and in the end panels behind it. And then I spend 3 months trying to customize it lolz.
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I take a screenshot of my UI, open it in Fireworks (Sort of like photoshop); then start drawing on top of it. Generally the screenshot is only to get the dimensions of chat/actionbars/minimap.
Once I'm done designing I start slicing and hope I can get it all into the game somewhat like I designed it. |
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Unit frames. Every time without fail. They're the focal point of your UI and contain by far more information per space used than any other element. I fit as much relevant info on the frames as possible and then I figure out everything else.
Then action bars. They're probably the second most informative UI element. Then after that whatever comes to mind in a seemingly random order. |
lol I start with whatever bugs me the most. If PitBull frames are riteupinurface then I start with them, if Dominos action bars are riteupinurface I start with them!
:3 |
Typically, when I start a new UI, I first begin by setting what will be the default textures/fonts in kgPanels and other mods.
Next are my Unit Frames. This is what usually takes me the longest as I tend to customize my unit frames quite heavily. Next comes the placement, parenting and tweaking of various kgPanels. Now we move onto the action bars. In the past I have used a pretty standard two bar configuration either stacked or on either side of the MiniMap (with the MiniMap located in the bottom center of my screen). However lately I have been experimenting with different layouts. Next come things like the MiniMap, timer bars, buff display, etc. Then it's onto MSBT Finally comes things like Broker displays, Threat Meters and the rest. |
I usually start by drawing a simple config out of what I'm looking for.
Than I design the panels Place Actionbars Place Chat, Omen and Recounty stuff Minimap (in the form of Carbonite <--- <3 ) Extra stuff such as auction addons and loot databases. You know the unwanted but always unavailable when needed stuff. |
Color - first define the default color (getting HEX-Code & Vertex-Info)
Then looking for any addons i use by default / utilityAddons Raiding Addons Making a list - what i need to see - and what is unimportant mostly comes to the point - ActionBar -> useless, rest usefull seeing that i've got 103AddOns - and start sweating oO |
I start off with a mockup in Photoshop, modifying the layout until it matches what I would like, and I print it out.
I download a list of addons that cover the features I want, and then I set them up. While setting it up, I either begin with the unit frames, or my bars. If I'm using any panels, I'll set them up first. After bars/unit frames, I go right to the minimap, then whatever other addons I need to configure, in no necessary order. |
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