My Sad, Sad UI

[Gorlando]

Ok, I'm having some troubles with my UI. My screen is too crowded with junk, even using CBH Viewport. I know part of my problem is the fact that I am playing on a mediocre laptop and can't crank up the resolution, but I know there must be something I can do to destroy the clutter.

Currently I am using:
Tankadin
CBH Viewport
Omen
PallyPower
Recount
PitBull
Bartender 4
Satrina's Buff Frames

I believe that my problem lies in how I have SBF formatted, or maybe Bartender. I don't run many 25 mans, but I know I will run into trouble with Pitbull- the unit frames are still very space consuming even when scaled down. I think if I want to run 25 mans in the future I will have to use Grid exclusively for that.

I will admit, I am no UI expert, or else I would not be asking you. I am fully capable, though, of formatting my addons- I just need fresh ideas. Thank you in advance for helping me with this, I appreciate it!

[Lave]

imo you should start scaling most things down by 20%.. then check whats really needed (i.E. you
use class icons next to your partyframes.. do you need those? the class is also indicated by the healthbarcolor)

you should also decrease the padding of satrinas to 0, disable your bagbar ("b" as your hotkey is all you ever need)
disable the top viewportframe, make your stancebar visible->hovering, scale down omen by like 50% (max shown
bars 3 or 4), reduce the thickness of your bottom viewport bar, scale down your chatframe
-> use the space you've won by chat+omen to increase your bars width (and reduce their height at the same time)

additional addons i'd suggest:
prat3 (chatframe..)
simpleminimap (much work to be done here)

[Levantine]

Showing your menu and bag like that is unnecessary and takes up valuable screen space. Everything's also scaled really really big.

[Gorlando]

Thanks, both of you, that's exactly what I needed.

-> use the space you've won by chat+omen to increase your bars width (and reduce their height at the same time)

By bars, I assume you mean my action bars?

I'm starting to realize that I have a lot of fluff that I don't need, like models scaled too largely and portraits for raids, etc. I can already tell I'm getting closer.

[Gorlando]

Ok, now I feel like an idiot I don't know how to increase the width and decrease the height of each box for Bartender... I can only find the scale option. I'll keep scouring, would someone enlighten/make me feel stupid please?

[Marker]

As mentioned before, scale everything down a bit.

for party/raidframes, Id reccommend that you also cut the height alot and to make it only show the healthbar and a slim line underneath to show the manabar. I'd leave out the numbers/% from those too, and rather get a goot tooltip addon to provide you with the exact numbers when U need that. For tanking I've found that nothing more than a quick overview is needed to ensure noone is too low on health, healer has mana etc before I pull more.

I'd also slim down the player/target/target-of-target (if you have one) down a fair bit.

for the stuff in the right corner, id place it somewhere else, (below raidframes maybe) and make it only visible on hover. HoL/FoL I'd assign through Clique which is great for creating mouseovers.

What I've done is to have a Grid set up just below my main actionbars. It allows for a good overview of the situation and visualize aggro well, so I can watch abilities come out of CD and partymemebers with aggro in the same area of the screen, close to the action. All without taking up much desktop estate.

I'd also move the line with player/targets/actionbars down to the top of the bars below, but that's more of a personal pref.

[Marker]

As mentioned before, scale everything down a bit.

for party/raidframes, Id reccommend that you also cut the height alot and to make it only show the healthbar and a slim line underneath to show the manabar. I'd leave out the numbers/% from those too, and rather get a goot tooltip addon to provide you with the exact numbers when U need that. For tanking I've found that nothing more than a quick overview is needed to ensure noone is too low on health, healer has mana etc before I pull more.

I'd also slim down the player/target/target-of-target (if you have one) down a fair bit.

for the stuff in the right corner, id place it somewhere else, (below raidframes maybe) and make it only visible on hover. HoL/FoL I'd assign through Clique which is great for creating mouseovers.

What I've done is to have a Grid set up just below my main actionbars. It allows for a good overview of the situation and visualize aggro well, so I can watch abilities come out of CD and partymemebers with aggro in the same area of the screen, close to the action. All without taking up much desktop estate.

I'd also move the line with player/targets/actionbars down to the top of the bars below, but that's more of a personal pref.

[Neejo]

Well i just think its plain ugly
for a quickie, go download a premade UI(like I do with rothUI
besides that, disable some options like your minibar and use keybindings
it saves you some work, and gives you a clean setup

screenie of roth

[Epimer]

I too am stuck with my laptop's fairly low native resolution, so have to work pretty hard to get all the information I feel I need in limited space. Here's what I'm running just now:



My raid frames are taking up far too much room there, because they were designed with 10 mans in mind - I'll be switching to Grid for 25s once I can find a way to have everyone's mana showing. Imagine that with only the first 2 groups on there and it's what it's supposed to look like

Few points about your own UI - ZOMGbuffs does the same thing as Pallypower for less screen real estate (it's the Devotion Aura thing on the right of my screen). It drives some people nuts, though. I've never been a fan of bar-type buff displays, because I don't think they give you much (if any) more information for the cost of a huge chunk of your screen.

As others have mentioned, your Pitbull layout is a little "chunky" and could maybe stand to be slimmed down a little. Simpleminimap or Sexymap would help you clean up that area, and Chatter is another chat addon which can help you tidy up there, too.

You might find Clique useful for getting some abilities off your bars and onto mouse bindings, too.

[Lave]

why do you care about peoples mana - is there something you can do about it beeing to low? ^^
same goes for omen.. whats with that huge window. youre doing the most threat possible in
every bossfight right? whats the point in watching that your maximum is/is not enough? :> a
minimalistic version of omen would also do the job imo

[Levantine]

Sometimes seeing healer mana can be helpful when you're speed clearing. :3 But in general, I agree, mana bars are unimportant for a tank to see.

[Epimer]

To be honest, Omen is that size mostly because it's a gap that would only be taken up by a second chat window or something otherwise. I don't need Recount open during fights, of course, so it's partly for a lack of things to put there and wanting to retain some symmetry. Point taken about it being oversized, but if I had something else I wanted there...

Mana bars are precisely for speed clearing of trash. Grid's low mana warning would *probably* be enough, but I feel like I should be keeping an eye on healer mana while chain-pulling, you know?

Like I say, those raid frames are ridiculous for 25s, and I need to sort them. They work great for me in 10s, but way too much screen space wasted in 25s.

[Gorlando]

Yes, Roth, it is a bit, erm, boring. I'm not as concerned with the aesthetics as I am with the functionality, though. Thanks for the suggestion about Clique and ZOMGBuffs, Epimer. I'll look into those.

[Kelaan]

Ok, I'm having some troubles with my UI. My screen is too crowded with junk, even using CBH Viewport....

I believe that my problem lies in how I have SBF formatted, or maybe Bartender. I don't run many 25 mans, but I know I will run into trouble with Pitbull- the unit frames are still very space consuming even when scaled down. I think if I want to run 25 mans in the future I will have to use Grid exclusively for that.

I found I liked AG_UnitFrames' raid frames for 10-mans ... but have recently swapped to Grid. I focus one other person (usu another tank, or the healer in 5-mans).

I found that Grid really helped me clean up my UI. Also, I use the normal debuffs/buffs display, rather than Elkano's (or similar). I liked the display of EBB, but it took up so much space that I now don't really miss it. (It DOES make it harder to see critical debuffs, though.)

I found making Bartender show only 3 rows (but therefore wider across the bottom) to be easier. I configured several "bars" to be 3x4 blocks of buttons, which helped me organize stuff, also. I also found myself much less distracted when I went to Mik's Scrolling Battle Text, rather than the normal damage-over-heads UI. It isn't perfect but I like it.

I'll see if I can post an annotated screenshot of mine so you can see what I mean.

[Anubisknight]

I found Ozraid to be a decent addon for 10 and 25 man raids.