Since I posted a detailed examination of my UI a few months back, I’ve received quite a number of requests for me to make the UI downloadable, which is rather flattering. This is actually something I’d be very happy to do and I thought I would provide something of an update for those people (and anyone else who is interested) in what’s going on with my UI and when it will be available to steal download.
The heart of the matter is this: Although my UI looks very cool at the moment, it doesn’t work perfectly. I get a fair few errors from time to time and I’ve had some niggling problems getting certain addons to remember what fonts they should be. This is probably due to the bazzilion addons in my folder, which have never really been cleaned out in the last 5 years and sometimes come into conflict with each other. Now this isn’t much of a problem for me, but its the kind of thing that I would want to get fixed should I make my UI available to others. It will also likely involve a massive cleanout, or possibly wiping everything out and starting again – which is something I find appealing, starting from scratch is a good way to try out ideas you would never have considered previously.
A second issue is that whilst I am very happy with how the UI works currently, I feel there are definitely areas it could be streamlined. The unit frames are good, but they could be better. There are also several bits and pieces in there that I think I could minimalise further, without loss of functionality. I would also like to add a few things, such as SexyCooldown and a refitted portrait frame that shows more of my toon’s facial expressions.
Seeing whole faces in the portrait would be more personal...
So why haven’t I done these things? Essentially because my real life has been crazy for the last few months and I haven’t had time. And now that I do actually find myself with some time, I find that Patch 4.0.1 and Cataclysm are not actually too far away. So I have decided to leave the UI overhaul until Patch 4 hits, because it should bring a bunch of interface changes with it, and I really don’t fancy remaking a whole UI only to have one or two key addons become totally borked. So I will bide my time and then when the dust has settled from Patch 4 I will leap into action. And yes, I will do my best to make this downloadable!
But don’t think that means I’m not doing anything at all UI-wise. Behold a sneak preview of some of my ideas, as drawn on my work notepad when I should have been, y’know, working.
So that’s a (very!) rough estimation of where my thinking currently lies. Trying to incorporate nice functional units frames along with buffs and abilities bar all in one centralised location. The sizing on this may be tricky however, as I don’t want a giant unit frame or for icons to be too small, so we shall see. I’m also extremely tempted to make a modified version of the oUF Hank addon, because I really love the style of it. Ultimately I hope to create something that is as similar to my existing UI as possible, but with some streamlining to save screen space and if possible improve functionality. For now, stay tuned!
