Reader UI of the Week: Scrolling smackdown

This week's UI comes from Omegah, who's showing off his Blood DK UI. He clarifies in his email that the UI he's sent in does have to work for several other characters, as he's obviously been busy and has four level 90s, all of which he raids on when his team requires is. We've looked at a couple of other UIs that cater for several classes, roles or characters before, but this is definitely among the most minimal. It should be noted, however, that he doesn't use this UI as it appears for healing, when I read Omegah's email, my first thought was "where are the raid frames for healing, those ones are too small/far away!" He adds them in -- sense made.

Another interesting observation about Omegah's UI was his deliberate division of chat channels. He deals with this well, moving the damage meter from what I'd refer to as its "traditional" spot at the lower right hand side up to the top left where the character frame used to be, freeing up his right-hand chat box for visible channels. Omegah says that the left pane is for basic channels, while the right is for global channels and others. I'm assuming that "basic channels" means things like say, guild, party, whispers, instance and the like, all the people you're (sort of) talking with out of choice. I do a similar thing, relegating trade and general to a separate tab behind the ones I want to see. I find it a useful aid to my sanity!

Omegah's email reads as follows, again, the editing stick has been wielded!

Omegah also sent in three screenshots: out of combat, solo combat, and party combat.

Notable Points

Considering Omegah says he's an addon addict, the general UI is surprisingly lightweight in appearance, particularly in solo combat. But then, I suppose addons are a little like make-up -- if you're good with them you can use loads without people really noticing you're using that many at all. My main observation is that, with some exceptions that we'll get to later, this is a very pretty UI, and very minimal, particularly when Omegah is solo. Omegah seems to be working with a relatively small resolution, and deals with this admirably, generally making good use of his screen space.


Good Things

I really like the kgPanels. Really like them. A lot. I would love to know whether Omegah set them up specifically for Mists of Pandaria, or whether they have had that texture for a while, because man they're pretty. They seem to blend in really well with the Mists world, especially with the slight transparency. He's also dont a great job of not only maintaining consistency with his action bar buttons, but also having them tie in visually with the look of the kgPanels, it all looks great together! If he wants to use it, I'd quietly suggest FacadeBuffs, which allows you to reskin the default buffs with your chosen Masque skin. Omegah also gets points for fairly consistent use of textures -- the backgrounds behind things like the player frames, skada bars and boss frames. There is a standard set of textures that can be used, and almost all of his UI's bars use the same, with the exception of the target cast bar. For me, using the same textures as much as possible further ties the UI together, so I like it!

The rune bar in the middle of the screen is also very well-positioned, and shows clearly what Omegah's DK has available and refilling in the way of runes. Almost all the DK UIs we've featured so far have had some manner of rune timer sat in that exact spot, and it's making me think that I should add the same to my DK's UI! I must admit to not being an experienced DK, but blimey the visible action bars are minimal! I'm wondering if there are some invisible ones concealed elsewhere in the screen, or whether I just have way too many abilities keybound on my DK. They look great, the central ones at least, but I do wonder how Omegah has managed to slim them down so much.


Not-so-good Things

I'm carrying on here with action bars, specifically the ones hanging out over the right-hand chat panel. Omegah, dear boy, your UI is great, but do you really need your professions, runeforging and hearthstone visible while in combat? Also, that micro-menu I see hiding out above them could be totally invisible! I think I've become a little obsessed with this, you know. Also, because this is such a pretty UI and I'm nitpicking, I'd love to see that Blizzard boss frame removed, as Omegah has gone to the trouble of setting up a new one that ties in beautifully. Lastly, in the excessively over-attentive UI scrutiny section, those minimap icons. They have to go! The minimap addon Omegah is using is great, I agree, but those pesky icons are messing things up.

But these are really very minor points. The only thing I think is getting in the way of this UI, and really my only major criticism, is Mik's Scrolling Battle Text. Not the addon itself, it's very useful, and people seem to like it, but I think it needs a little reconfiguration. The left-hand stream is the only one that isn't sitting above something else, looking untidy, and the central stream is pretty much unreadable, as well as making all the other text in the same area unreadable. And that font. Man, that font. I'm not a fan!

What do you think of Omegah's UI? And please do send yours in! It's olivia@wowinsider.com.

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.