Reader UI of the Week: Tian's UI

Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, spotlighting the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots, along with info on what mods you're using, to readerui@wow.com.

Welcome to another exciting episode of Reader UI of the Week, your repository of all things community user interfaces. I'm still working on my upgrades to my UI for Cataclysm, so you fine people don't get to see my deal yet. Soon. Soon. In the meantime, why don't we check out a submission from the ol' email box?

Speaking of, I would love to get another big backlog of reader UI submissions that are Cataclysm-themed or designed specifically for the new expansion. If you've got something you've been working on for expansion day, show me! I would love to spotlight some Cataclysm user interfaces that are going to happily see the light of day when the world comes to the brink of death.

As Wrath of the Lich King comes to a close with elemental invasions, Thrall babysitting lots of tiny elemental babies, and cultists totally wrecking our cities, I wanted to feature Tian's user interface. Why feature a user interface with so much Wrath artwork and motif? I think I want to say goodbye to Wrath of the Lich King in the best way I can -- talking about the art and the user interface that showcases it.

Let's hear it, Tian:

Thanks for the submission, Tian. I'll come out the gate swinging with my less than enthusiastic approval of so much art on the bottom panel. A quick adjustment on the opacity slider will make things much more readable, especially in the chat frame. So, that's out of the way.

Back in The Burning Crusade, I made some custom blood elf art to go with my paladin's user interface after I rerolled for my guild. The blood elf shields, colors, and motif were really appealing and something completely new to World of Warcraft at the time. Having the expansion's motif as part of my expansion (later on, only the colors) made my user interface feel like it belonged rather than just existing. I think Tian's user interface brought me back to a time when I liked the expansion's motif as part of my setup.

Gone will be the icy blues of ice stalactites, the ominous, conspicuously hat-shaped Icecrown Citadel, and the snowy tundra. Gone are the tuskarr and the Fjord, the icy seas and frozen skulls. I actually feel a little sad to see it all go by the wayside. Blue has always been a pretty decent UI color choice, and Wrath's motif was a strong point in many custom interface setups.

Tian's UI is another reminiscent of the old Warcraft 3 and StarCraft days, where the art substitutes the RTS interface. I like the motif pairing of the bottom panel with the top LDB bar, creating similar effects that tie everything together.

I think Tian's setup would work very well on any type of resolution, wide-screen or not. There are plenty of emails in my inbox about interfaces for monitors that aren't wide-screen, and I think something like Tian's setup would give those players some good inspirations. Height similarities between addons, dipping the middle part of the art, and finding uses for the empty space would make this a competent UI on any size monitor.

Thank you so much for the submission, Tian, and thank you all for letting me say goodbye to an interface motif that will be sorely missed. Soon, it will all be molten lava, Deathwing jaws and broken aspects of Stormwind. It will be exciting, I'm sure.

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We haven't answered mail in awhile and it's been piling up, so how about some email answers?

Thanks for the email, FireSoul. Take a look at the buttons you use the most as well as the keys you hit the most. Start at the very beginning and define your core roles and core abilities, and redesign from there. For instance, as a tank, I usually have my left hand on the keyboard and my right hand on the mouse for movement. Therefore, my tanking abilities and main buttons are on the left side of the keyboard, with appropriate bindings and modifiers. The mouse has cooldowns, movement buttons and some panic buttons. Take your role and see what you're hitting the most, and go from there.

Thanks for the email, Crazyates. I took your suggestion a few weeks back and wrote a bit about the new changes to the World of Warcraft default user interface, and it's mostly positive. Many aspects of the new UI are perfect and I love them, especially the ability notification system. Less so about the raid frames, but they are getting better. Blizzard has priorities, and addon developers do such a great job at creating unit and raid frames that it seems low on the priority list. Mostly positive changes, though. I'd love to see what's in store for later down the road, and I cannot wait to see the new dungeon/raid boss interface on the map.

Also, if you're recently coming back for Cataclysm and haven't been around in WoW for awhile, we have got a great guide about what has changed since you last saw the game.

Thanks for the email, Daedhir. Way back when, I discussed Daedhir's UI and liked it a lot. His UI is nice because it keeps a very Warcraft-y feel while not going overboard with the graphics, and a lot of people who read this column respect that. If you're looking for a setup for Cataclysm that isn't going to get in your way, I can definitely recommend checking out Daedhir's setup. I like the new stuff, Daedhir. Keep up the good work.

That's all for this week, ladies and gents. Next week, hopefully some neat pictures of my new setup, another fun UI to discuss, and much, much more. Don't forget to send me your Cataclysm user interfaces, and I'd love to see what types of UI art people are working on for the new expansion with a brand new motif.

Interested in getting the most out of your user interface? Come back once a week for more examples of reader UIs. For more details on individual addons, check out Addon Spotlight, or visit Addons 101 for help getting started.