Reader UI of the Week: Simple symmetry and Wavelength's UI

Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights 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@wowinsider.com.

If Reader UI had a theme song, what would it be? According to my play list while writing (and for those of you who follow me on Twitter), you know it's probably one of the songs that appears on my Aqua play list on Pandora. So with that in mind, you can pretty much guess my mental state while putting together Reader UI of the Week.

This week, I wanted to go with another smaller UI, something that feels laptop or low-res focuses, while still keeping things nice and neat. A few weeks back, I said that I wanted to categorize the reader UIs that I spotlight in order to better facilitate the information that people could gain from the articles. Well, I've finally figured out my little system. Wavelength's UI is the first to be hit with my super category system!

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Wavelength's UI Shaman, healer, laptop/desktop, large addons

What have you got for me, Wavelength?

Thanks for the email, Wavelength. Before I jump into Wavelength's setup, here's a quick rundown of the categories I am going to apply to the UIs on Reader UI of the Week: class (shaman, druid, etc.), role (tank, healer, DPS), screen size (laptop, desktop, widescreen), and feature (minimalism, large icons, tower stack, bottom bar, compartments, etc.). You'll see the first category setup above the email right after the jump. If you guys and gals have any additional categories you'd like to see, let me know in the comments!

Recount the ways

Every time a laptop UI or smaller screen resolution setup comes through my email, I do my best to stop and think about what I used to do on my little LCD monitor, looking back at the olden days when my WoW machine's saddest feature for a desktop was the screen size. It's hard to do, honestly. With the 23-inch LCD, my spatial awareness has changed. The more I plan out UIs these days, the more I try to make them resolution-independent, full of general concepts that fit any screen size if I ever have to transition over to the laptop for one reason or another.

Sometimes, however, I get confused because the screen real estate looks large but addons look gigantic. Wavelength's UI can go either way for me, in my mind. Anyway, I digress.

Large addons are not necessarily a bad thing, but Recount is out of control. Wavelength's setup works with a short list of addons that stacks nicely and is backed by nice, easy borders, despite some redundancy. When you're using a setup like Vuhdo, party frames become fairly unnecessary because Vuhdo becomes your party frames. Seeing them hanging around when another addon is doing the work already is just a waste of space, really.

People use larger addons for all sorts of reasons, from awareness issues to the fact that some addons are just plain difficult to see. I'm a little of both. Big addons let me have a little leeway with my awareness as well as compensate for my occasionally crappy eyesight. In the case of Recount, however, people fail to realize that the addon does not have to be this giant, monstrous thing to tell you your DPS, unless you're just a fan of bars on your screen. If that's the case, I can't help you. If you're open to change, one of the easiest ways to trim down your UI is trim down your bars.

Targets and more

Compartmentalizing the player and target frames helps a good deal for awareness. While keeping a separate player frame can seem redundant, since your own health appears in the Vuhdo window/setup as well, I found it useful when I healed on my shaman to have my own health in a central, safe place. Personal debuff tracking has always been easier for me when debuffs appear above my health; Wavelength makes good use of the rounded background pieces to give the player and target frames their own little place to live.

Recount and Chatter are good addons to use as symmetry addons, flanking the main setup in the middle of the screen and keeping things organized. The one large action bar at the bottom of the screen is great for a combination click-keybind setup. My personal setup has a click utility bar, but with the one large ba,r you can set aside a few buttons to have click-ready, always knowing when they are.

Tidying up

Tidy Plates is a great addon for tanks, healers, or DPSers (even if the best use of Tidy Plates, in my humble opinion, is the tank functionality). Aggro is easy to see with the basic settings and is my favorite name plate addon by far. This is one of those cases where, when all of the customization is done for me, I like to sit back and marvel at others' creations. Nameplates are one of those times.

If Wavelength wanted to switch up some of his UI, I'd trim the right side down a bunch. Recount for a healer isn't probably necessary, but it is nice to have. Wavelength uses Recount for the raid utility and tracking options, which I will admit are pretty awesome, especially for interrupts. Many of the addons could be pared down, and the Pitbull party frames could be removed completely instead of doubling up with Vuhdo.

Overall, I think the UI uses addons in a smart way -- nothing too invasive, but at the same time, they could use a bit of a scale reduction if at all possible. Sadly, Wavelength did not send me a resolution, which would have been nice, but we can assume no less than 800x600. You've got the right addons, Wavelength, and you've got a solid setup that could be used for healers or DPS characters. A solid UI.

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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.