This is a great little article which helped me dive even further into what true minimalism means and improve my designs even more.

Ciao! ~

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. I think my current interface is about as minimal as it can get without heading into unusable territory. I have very little information on my screen, and there have only been a handful of circumstances in my year+ raiding with this UI that I’ve wanted more information. Typically in those cases I refine my UI to provide that information in a low-impact way (for example: adding unit level to my tooltip rather than my unit frame).

I’m about (today) to post an update to my “Clean” UI, and I’ll explain more there.

If no, then which is the UI _closest_ to the exact definition of minimalist? I know you have many to choose from on this site, but frankly, I want to know which UI you have found to be the best.

You summarize my feelings well in your final sentence: “every interface must be minimalist or be dismissed.” I’ve always been a fan of minimalism, but it should be noted that it is in fashion right now in the WoW world (and beyond, if there still is such a thing). Blizzard’s focus on making us Not Stand in Fires (hereafter ~DIAF), and the entire concept of the arena, has made situational awareness much more important in WoW than they once were.

Once upon a time, fight gimmicks were about knowing transitions and changes in roles. Kill that! Ok! Now go over there and kill that other thing! Oop! Tank switch! Druids go bear and grab a fire ele! Don’t attack that one dude though! Now it’s all: Stand there! Now go over there and stand there! But not too close to that other thing or too far from this thing! Quarter-circle left! And stop! Now, back to original positions!

The ~DIAF game design changes what we require of our UI. The old days of viewports with art panels are over; such UIs are the laughingstock. We need to see our feet now; and, what’s more, we frequently have to see who we’re close to, and which direction is the safest way to run when we need to spread out.

So, one factor is a game design shift on Blizz’s part. There’s also, of course, a trend toward minimalism in our culture recently. And, finally, huge monitors are getting cheaper and cheaper, and a 24″ monitor will make even the Blizz UI look minimalist.

Thus the minimalist UI trend. It is a good trend, I feel; and I’m not afraid to say that. There is such a thing as a good trend. However, Warhol’s line about beauty fits with WoW UI design just as it does with everything else: the truly beautiful was beautiful before it came into style, and will stay beautiful after it goes out of style.

A good example of this might be a boss mod versus arena enemy frames. You might want to have enemy frames always show cast bars to monitor interrupts, coordinate CC, dispels, or burn targets. In PvE multi-target casting is organized on a need to know basis, and we call that addon a boss mod. We don’t need a warning on every cast of KT’s frost bolt, but knowing when Ignis will cast flame jets is very important. Constant monitoring of activity in an arena is key just because of the play style.

How far can you go?

Also, maybe unrelated to topic, but where would you define a UI to be most critical; PvE or PvP?