Reader UI of the Week: Get personal with Absinth's redesign for raiding

Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring 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, and follow Mathew on Twitter.

The raiding game comes upon us faster than ever these days, as the leveling portion of the game shrinks just as much as it expands with each subsequent expansion. While raiding should be a focus for design teams, because you need constant current end game content, the path to raiding is still a long and arduous one. And when the mighty finally ascend the stairs of destiny and plant their flag at the top of the world, then you realize your interface just isn't going to cut it anymore.

"But it's been fine like this for 85 levels!" you exclaim. Yes, yes, I agree. It's a weird phenomenon in video gaming, where as you progress through a journey learning skills, gaining allies, and collecting equipment, the fundamentals of your play experience radically shift. It's less of a problem these days with the Dungeon Journal, random Raid Finder and Dungeon Finder tools, and a general understanding of what raiding is among the video gaming populace.

When Absinth sent in a UI for Reader UI of the Week back in October, I praised the simple layout and said that with a few tweaks to the non-static UI elements, the setup would have been fine for raiding. As it turns out, upon reaching the raid game, Absinth's UI did not hold up as intended. A shame, considering how much I loved the original UI. Never fear, though, because Absinth's raiding UI is very much a work of personal touch, personal accommodation, and personal experience.

Here's Absinth's take on the whole thing:

Getting personal

Thank you very much for the second submission and email, Absinth. It is a personal experience, looking at someone's user interface, considering all of the variables at play and how many points of difference could potentially exist between this UI and yours. Deep, right? Not really. Still, this is a personal thing.

Every piece of your UI is in its place because you want it to be there. Since everything is movable, that opens up an impossible number of combinations of design. Some designs are better and more popular, sure, but everything is in its place because you put it there.

What struck me about Absinth's redesigned UI was that it had to become a lot more cluttered to accommodate raiding. While the amount of clutter wasn't the craziest amount of clutter I have ever seen, it is still there, a stark difference that I try very hard to deny exists.

Personal preference

At first I thought I was going to hate the graphics included in the kgPanel frames. Was it the color? Too pink? Was it the texture work? As I started to ask myself these questions, it became apparent that I could not pin down which aspect of the kgPanels annoyed me, so the only conclusion was I didn't hate them enough to not like them. So, honestly, I don't mind. In fact, I like contrast because contrast is king, especially when there are so many colors on screen.

I like the bottom right panel area, consisting of small meters and wrap-around buttons, as well as the discreet bag buttons. There is just so much information jam-packed into that corner that I can't help but love.

As most healing user interfaces go, the screen is dominated by a Vuhdo raid healing interface, which will pretty much be where you are living as a healer anyway. I can just feel places in on the UI where Absinth might have felt the need for a button or two just because the eyes glance at those areas instinctively.

Personal accommodation

I've said before that one of the best ways to give yourself an idea of what's out there in terms of user interface configuration is to grab some prefab UI compilations and add to them or rearrange the way addons are set up. You can start with someone else's design and tinker with it to create your own, lived-in environment. Coincidentally, that's exactly what Absinth did.

Pieces of the UI were uplifted out of the original compilation and then pillows were rearranged, addons moved, and other pieces added on to create a personal experience. This is fine. Do this. The only caveat is that you don't get to say that you made it yourself. No one will hate you for talking about where inspiration came from, as Absinth did here. Go out, find what you like, and cobble something together that works.

Genuine and lived in

I like that Absinth's new UI feels genuine and lived-in versus something that feels sterile and prefab. When I look at the button placement and the meters, I already know what the focus of the UI is. Little clues lead me to conclusions about where information is displayed, like the Shadowfiend stuff. It's all just very interesting to me.

I'd see about getting the middle to move down a bunch. Sure, big Vuhdo frames are nice,especially as a healer, but do you think it needs to sit directly atop that kgPanel with nothing beneath it? Unless some targeting frames or other invisible addon goes there, why not cut a hole in the middle of that kgPanel and slide the Vuhdo interface down in between the player and target frame areas?

Other than that, I'm a fan. Nice work graduating from dungeons to raiding, Absinth, and I'm sure you'll have plenty of raiding luck in the future. See, guys and gals? Getting into the raid game isn't too bad and definitely not too difficult when your UI is in tip-top shape for the fights ahead.

See you guys next week.

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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.