Looking for layout/design feedback!

[Folji]

Hey folks!

So this is a project I have been just about obsessing over the past 2-3 weeks. I mean, hell, it's hard to put it away sometimes. But it's awesome, I've so far managed to create player/target frames (working on the target of target and pet frames), and a bottom bar arrangement that uses the default interface options to show/hide frames. It's pretty great!


Layout with no target and one extra action bar showing.


Both bottom action bars visible.


Full layout with class resources and all, on a death knight.


Smallest compact layout of the bottom frame, showing both XP and reputation bars.


So here's what I'd like some feedback on.

Aside from the design as a whole (for which I'd love to hear what people think!), I just can't make up my mind about the main action bar. I wound up making it larger than the other action bars, and the texture came out looking a bit different when I made it. Now, I want it to be as high up as it is; when I play I like to keep my eyes on the action, and having to look all the way down to the bottom of the screen to double-check cooldowns, stacks, situational spells and so forth, it just feels distracting. So I wanted to keep the things that I look at the most within glancing distance, or in clear peripheral vision when looking at the character, so that my eyes can be on the action and not on healthbars or cooldown counts.

Of course, the plan is to build it so that everything is hidden, and then show the unit frames when targetting and all of it while in combat. ( And by "everything" I mean the things around the character. The bottom action bars would stay visible. )

But that daaaamn main action bar. I just can't decide. Is it big enough? Is it too big? Is it too long and would 2x6 be a better option? Does it look good as it is or should I change the edges to match the bottom bar? Maybe it's the shift from jagged curves and points to twined metal that just looks odd.

[d87]

I like the layout and unit frames, except the portrait background. I don't even know why, just seems like it's from another game, maybe change ring color from golden.
Action bars textures are also alright, tho a bit flat.

Regarding main action bar, it's obviously up to you, but i'd say you do what you gotta do to make it functional in combat and then worry if it's pretty. People use WeakAuras and all that stuff to make important things more accessible.

but for example I use this separate 2x4 vertical combat-only bar next to target frame for situational short-medium cooldowns (6-60s), and buttons fade when the spell is on cooldown.
[Screenshot]
Maybe that's relevant...

[Folji]

Hey that is actually true! Heh. I've honestly gone somewhat blind to the notion that players usually sort out some kind of heads-up system themselves, focused as I have been on trying to narrow the focus area of the UI. Still, I have a positively awful habit for flaky-eyeing the action bars myself, when it comes to regular spells with brief cooldowns. And having to look all the way down at the bottom for it it just feels annoying.

Really though, does the portraits feel out of place? Huh! Maybe it's the orb gloss that does it? Or the colour contrast. The colour palette is just about entirely sampled from the default UI frames; dark-brown from the main frame body, similar dark slate-blue as inset backgrounds (like the reputation frame has), and the same metallic grey edges. Maybe it's the contrast, putting dark, earthy tones against high-contrast gold, the gold rings on the default portrait frames are all less contrasted and accompanied by grey, after all.

[JDoubleU00]

I like what I see. Are planning on releasing this or is it for your use only?

[Folji]

Thanks! Whenever it gets close to something I could play with regularly, I'm planning to release it!

Right now it's missing ToT, pet, and focus frames, party frames aren't there, the minimap is untextured, chi points and runes are the only class resources I've done, there's no combat or threat indicators, no PvP icons, the castbar is still default, haven't done the pet actionbar yet, there's a slew of stuff! But once I've got those things down and the UI isn't lacking anything the default UI provides, I'm planning to release it as a standalone UI redesign so to speak.

In the bigger picture I'd like to offer some kind of in-game configuration to toggle various features, change the height and gap of the player/target frames, and offer different ease of life tidbits such as filtered aura watch on the unit frames, and so forth.

[syncrow]

• I guess the unit frames would look much better with a bit smaller portraits.
• Personally, i would prefer the first design choice, it looks more compact rather than super long actionbars (12 vs. 24)
• The size of the main action bar is okay, but the left/right edges do not feel like fitting with the bottom bar (mostly the problem with flying bars)

The thing is, you will use the main action bar for cooldown display, but the other side you want to look at the whole bottom bar (like me, damn its super hard to not look at it, after 10 years..) So the effect is, that the action bars do not feel connected to each other, cause you use 2 different places.

like d87 said, most people use other stuff for cooldown tracking, so that it would be the best way to focus on "connected" action bars. 1x 24's layout + a 12's ontop or something like that...or make the whole bottom bar a flying element.