How do YOU design your UI?

[Neef]

Just a bit curious how others go through their UI design process.

- I personally start with my Action Bars. I place and arrange them until I'm comfortable with their placement and look.

- Next I look at the minimap. Do what's necessary for it. The bars are then tweaked if needed to accommodate.

- Unit Frames generally come third if I plan on keeping them at the top. If I want them towards the center or bottom, I like to get my chat window set up before them.

- Buff bars/windows come in, followed by and Alert / Proc / Cooldown type stuff.

- All this is followed by placement of whatever Boss Mod I'm using at the moment.
If feeling really creative that day, I may put in some aesthetic panels of some sort.


How do you design yours?

[Antithought]

I usually start with placement of actionbar buttons, then adjusting Recount, Omen and other things that inhibit my monitor space. I always follow a texture theme though, makes me crazy when I don't have anything matching.
Edit:If I'm starting a warrior or DK alt, I always put the stance/presence bar right on top of my action bars. Also, my micro menu is for some reason different for all my characters. Usually on the left side though.

[Sythalin]

Minimap -> Action Bars -> Chat Windows -> Misc

I use CFM to make sure everything is exactly where I want it to be.

[Bruners]

hide action bars with dominos, let oPanel handle oChat, loot, Omen and Recount, oCD for cooldowns, NeedToKnow for procs and debuffs, oUF with my layout and done.

[MidgetMage55]

I generally just start fiddling around. Sometimes it's an action bar idea. sometimes it's a unit frame position or layout. I just start messing around with elements until something starts to happen. Sort of a free form design process if you will.

[ricks322]

Originally Posted by ChaosInc Minimap -> Action Bars -> Chat Windows -> Misc I use CFM to make sure everything is exactly where I want it to be.

Sorry, but what is CFM?

[nightcracker]

Originally Posted by ricks322 Sorry, but what is CFM?

http://wow.curseforge.com/addons/cfm/

[Seerah]

It's also located here: http://www.wowinterface.com/download...eModifier.html

[p3lim]

I generally take the class and spec I'm going to play, sum up what I need to know while playing it, then develop addons around that need.

I normally start with the unitframes, then cooldowns, buffs, minimap etc

[shkm]

Like this:

http://rf.shkm.net/category/features...ent-interface/

Not intended to be a plug, it's my answer to the question . I do things a little different nowadays, though.

[Led ++]

I usually have a rough picture in my head on how I want my UI and what I want to achieve with the UI.

Then if it's a clean addons isntall I start with disabling or hiding everything I don't need (actionbars, some UF's, .. all the clutter around minimap, ..) so my screen is as empty as possible.

before I start I generally put the chat in the bottom left corner, make sure I have a clean minimap and place it where I want it, and place my buffs at the desired place (tho not fully configured yet)

Then I just start doing whatever I feel like doing at that time. Tho the main focus are always the unit frames as I find those the most important part of the UI (I'm a tank).

I build up everything in segments. For example, my unit frame is together with my cooldown actionbar, my buff bar for procs, short duration buffs etc, my castbar and thigns like that.

While my target frame is together with my threatbars, ToT frame, short duration boss timers, etc.

After that comes party/raid which as a tank aren't that important anyway.

Then I basically jsut follow my feeling on what I should change so it would benefit my playstyle as much as possible, mostly taking a few weeks before my raw sketch of the UI finally has a "completed" version. Which can be quite different from the image I first had in my head.

[Unkn]

Unit frames and action bars

Chat

Skada + DBM

The fluff... aka latency, cd bar, stat display, extra action bars, and whatever else I want to look at atm

The theme to tie it all together *sometimes this comes first if its alot of graphics so i get stuff positioned correctly on it*

[Ferous]

I start off with unit frames always first. They are generally the focus in a interface, then kgPanels. I usually do actionbars last, which leaves me blank.. lol

[Kath]

I always start with some sort of texture art pannel and design my UI's around it.

[Aerials]

I start out by figuring where i definitely don't want stuff (where i want to be able to see the world frame), then i'll usually start with action bars followed by unit frames then map(s), then i add in all the other stuff anywhere that makes some sense. then i repeat all of that a couple times until i think i like it. so in the end, everything's position is based on another element but nothing was particularly the beginning or end for where itself or anything else is.

[Taryble]

I generally start off with UF's - I pop open StUF and twiddle all the little sliders until I get an idea, and then build from that. From there, I tend to make minor changes to actionbars, kgPanels, skada, quest tracker, reputation bars, autobar, guppet, chat, minimap, the 4000 broker launchers I have, etc, etc... A cascading waterfall of "Okay, move it one pixel... done!"

[Flockrock]

I download all addons that I need, than I start with Actionbars, too. I usually don't do something with the Minimap. The panels after the bars (Kgpanels) and then I look (usually) for oUF Unit Frames, because they don't use many memory. The chat, bag, and something more at last.

[ashankt]

I'm quite surprised no one has said "I get a pen and paper" - it seems to be logical!