Highlight: Metz’ UI
Introduction
I typically won’t highlight a UI which I think is deeply flawed, and I won’t be breaking that trend with this post. Metz’ UI uses a lot of things I think are bad, but in a way that ultimately comes together to form a great UI. This won’t’ be the typical “Aesthetics/Functionality” type post; rather, I plan on going through each element I typically dislike and point out why it works. Not to spoil the fun, but I’d give this UI an 8/10. Hopefully the reasoning behind that will become apparent. As note at the beginning of his post on MMO-Champion (zomg trackback!), Metz thanks “beska” for the “original UI.” I have no idea who that is, and I’m absolutely too lazy to find out. Grats beska.
Screenshot (Link pops, as always)
The Bad – =/
I actually lied in the introduction, because I plan on going through the few things I dislike first. I think the CyCircled texture does a huge disservice to this UI. The style of this UI is “classy,” insofar as it’s simple and elegant. The gloss looks out of place, and belies the obvious care that was used in configuring other parts of the UI. Simply using the vol skin *sans* gloss would go a long way to fixing that. Similarly, the minimap buttons just blow it. In a UI that is otherwise very clean, they look messy and haphazard. Making these two buttons text-based would be preferable.
The other thing I just don’t like is the bottom bar. Transparent elements have no place in this UI, and without seeing a more comprehensive screenshot (tooltip, primarily) it’s impossible to tell how it ties in. There are a few ways I would get around this problem: either make a smaller opaque box around the actionbars a la Caith or use gradients. As it is, the bottom of the screen feels clunky.
The Good – Font, Text and Unitframes
On some level, I think the font is the most important part of this UI. If the font had been ugly, the whole UI would be spoiled. Why? Text obviously plays a major role here, and the way he’s utilized the text really defines this UI versus your standard official-board fare. So, there are a few things to note, other than the exceptional font choice, dealing with the configuration of text on the screen and the bar-counterparts.
I decided to focus in on the party frames, because I think they’re the defining feature of this UI. The juxtaposition of the larger name text and the smaller *garbage* text looks really swell (>.>). Not capitalizing the names adds just a bit of style to the Unitframes, and gives it a more modern look. I’m really trying not to just say ‘ZOMG THIS LOOKS GOOD DO IT NAU,’ though that’s obviously how it comes out. The color juxtaposition on the health/power text is also nice. It provides easy differentiation between present/full without having to resort to drastic color choices (i.e. Caith).
The garbage text, in this case, is acceptable because it contributes to the aesthetic feel of the unit-frames. The reason I dislike class/level/race text as a general rule is that it causes something else to be sacrificed so it can be included. I genuinely believe that such text is absolutely not useful on the unitframes – you can color names to show class, level should be obvious from the tooltip, and race is obvious from the avatar. This is also why portraits are stupid, for the record. Anyway, because that garbage text becomes a formal element in the UI, it is less awful. Certainly I would try to find a way to put useful information there, but I can’t think of anything offhand.
The raid-frames are also pretty good. Class-color on the text instead of the bars themselves gives the desired effect, and keeps the unitframes visually in-line with the rest of the UI.
The Meh – Colors
I know this will only further the perception that I would jump Halcyone’s man-bones given the opportunity (it’s true, by the way), but the whole Gray on Darker-Gray thing is just boring. I’m not sure how this UI would look with another color scheme (but I’m going to find out, *hint hint*) and some major reworking of the enormous unitframes, but I think it would be served better in that way. While the grays do contribute to the “stylishness” of the UI, it comes at the cost of both functionality and happiness – two things I’m not particularly willing to sacrifice.
So, there you have it. I don’t really have anything interesting to say about placement because it’s either not visible (shitty screenshot, Metz) or not revolutionary nor revolting. It’s just the same standard line-up you see on 99% of UIs these days (probably because it’s the best placement possible).
