The WoW UI is the interface we all know best and love (yes, even retired folk like me can't let it go). But WoW isn't the only game out there. Share some of your favorite UIs from other games you've played. Rate it according to functionality, level of customization, aesthetics and whatever else you like. Have you ever thought about adapting it to WoW?
This thread is mostly just for fun, but sometimes taking a look at other games and how well their UI suits the demands of the game can maybe give authors some fresh ideas for their WoW UIs. Bonus points for screenshots!
I'll start myself and although I like many UIs I'm going to limit myself to two. Note that I'm not just commenting on the UI itself, but also how well it meets the demands of the game.
Tomb Raider: Legend
Not really a role-playing game but it is one of the better UIs I've come across. The blue bar on the left is Lara's health and is hidden except when she loses hit points, when it appears for a few seconds and then fades away. It flashes red and stays on the screen when her health is below 30%ish. Likewise the grenade and ammo counts only appear when used or when picking up ammo, then fade away.
The red bar on the right is a boss health frame and does not appear for regular mobs, however it is hardly needed for anything less than bosses, since the game focuses heavily on solving puzzles and not combat. For regular mobs, a red reticule appears when locking on a target so you can aim properly. Wrapping up the UI is a tiny grid showing flashlight, PDA, health kit and a weapon swap button (not shown here) that also only appear when used.
Obviously what I like so much about it is that elements only appear when absolutely needed. Minimal amounts of information are displayed, yet you don't need more. When traveling nothing but the game world is displayed, which makes solving complex puzzles in huge ancient ruins so much more enjoyable. I couldn't think of a better designed UI for this game if I tried.
On a similar note, the UI for Underworld is just all kinds of awful. But I won't get into that here.
Oblivion
This is one of my favorite game UIs (and one of my favorite games, too). Simple, minimalist, aesthetically pleasing, integrates well with the theme of the game, and also very functional.
Bottom left we have the health, mana and stamina (used for running and stuff) bars. Next to those we have two icons, one for the weapon equipped and the other for your primary spell. You can only cast you primary spell in combat, but these can be changed on the fly by binding other spells to keys. Yes, spellcasting is a little different than WoW since you have an extra step in assigning the spell you want to cast, but that's a game mechanic and not a UI function.
Next to the two icons we have a compass that also shows quest objectives. Wrapping up the UI we have a target reticule with a semi-circle-shaped bar that shows target health. You might think that's too little, but for this game I found that you hardly need more than that. Besides, a huge enemy health bar would just take away from the realism of the game, in my opinion.
The only tiny little change I would make would be to switch the positions of the compass and healt/mana/stamina bars, but that's just a little leftover from my WoW days. It's entirely possible and not at all cumbersome to play the game as it is, and I have.
So, there you have it. There are other UIs I like, but I've written way too much already in this post. Let's get some great games and great UIs in here!