UI Clinic: Segment13

The UI Clinic is a series of segments created by Bouvi for The AIE Podcast which help you turn your back on the default UI and create a UI to be proud of.

Welcome AIE

Hello AIE and welcome to this edition of the UI Clinic. This is Bouvi your host. Tonight we will delve into the good, the bad and the ugly... Wait that was a movie.

OK forget that lets grab the patient chart and get started.

Awesome Posts

Thanks to some really awesome UI Posts on the forums I have been tweeking like crazy. I have switched up some addons and I will tell you what I use now.

Chinchilla

First up I got rid of RicoMinimap and switched to Chinchilla. Way more options to mess with. I have mine set to a teardrop style shape that just looks neat. But that is not all it will do. There are options for Appearance, Auto Zoom, Compass, Coordinates, Expander, Location, Move Buttons, Ping, Position, Quest Tracket, Range Circle, Show/Hide, Tracking Dots and Wheel Zoom. Now if you cannot imagine this gives you tons of customizing abilities. Check it out, it rocks.

KGPanels

Next up is KGPanels. Adding gradients and art to my UI has really made it pop. Using it in conjunction with other addons and you have a unique look. I have set Omen and Recount to hide their backgrounds and created boxes to house them to make them look the same keeping a nice even tone throughout the design.

Skinner

Skinner is awesome. You can set skins on just about anything. I use the VP/TMBFrames to give it a widescreen looks. "But Bouvi you cut off alot of screen doing that". Actually you don't. You lose a little verticle but gain a ton of horizontal so in essence you get more viewable area without any UI Elements interfering. It can also skin other things like your character screen, powers, etc. Check it out, well worth it.

ButtonFacade

And next we have ButtonFacade. This helps keep my UI looking consistant across the board. Instead of the buttons looking like they were just slapped on, ButtonFacade allow me to give them style helping to blend them with the UI.

Screengrid

That is alot of stuff to work with. Lining it all up can be a pain. Screengrid can help with that. Screengrid is nothing more than an addon that allows you to throw up a grid for the sole purpose of lining up your UI elements. You can make large grids, or small grids. Up to you. For example type /screengrid 32 for large boxes or like /screengrid 128 for tiny boxes giving you incredible precision. To turn it off just type /screengrid 0.

Time's Up

Well that is all the time we have for the UI Clinic. As always you can contact me in-game by doing a /who for Bouv (this gets all my alts too) or e-mail me at bouvi@uiclinic.com. Big shoutout to all those in the UI Screenshots (UI Clinic Addon Talk) forum post. Their UI pics and sugesstions really brought my UI to a whole new level. Until next time check out that post and share ideas, you never know when something you think is just OK will be another persons UI breakthrough.