My UI is a mess?

[tethealla]

So in the process of suggesting a mod, Daewen says my UI is a mess. Well it is, but I guess I'll post it up and ask for some suggestions.

Here's the picture I posted in the other forum. Do note, some of what you are seeing is transient data, but the frames aren't. I'll explain.



What we are seeing and why it looks like a mess

Overlapping Frames
* on the top right, my new buff mod is overlapping with DBM's timer bars. When I get a new mod, it does take me a few weeks to break it in... work out the options, and fit it into my raiding UI. This was part of that process. I might dump it and go with the consolidated blizzard buff UI.
* bottom right we see skada pushes off the right side of the screen overlapping with totem timers and a Evenju's info frame. Skada usually lives above totem timers, but it was overlapping with the buff mod. I pushed it down there earlier in the night to get it out of the way. I can turn it off, I just need to figure out how (I think it's left or right click on the lbm bar addon).
* once again the buff bar overlaps a quest objective. I usually click these off before raid, but someone had shared the weekly, and I forgot to click it off before raid started.
* DBM range check - I need to convince this to not come up. I use HuDmap and it does a better job for range awareness than the rage check. The range check comes up on it's own and overlaps other frames and annoys me.
* Informative frame overlap: DBM and Mik's scrolling text can overlap, but it doesn't bother me much. You can see it happen right there with the +183 mana and the Air Phase


Since I do use HuDMap and DBM, I probably could go through dbm and turn off a couple of warnings which HuDmap does better (and vice versa). I haven't done this yet.

How to fix
* So mainly fix my buff mod. It's mainly in the way. Like I said above, I might go with the consolidated blizzard UI. Does anyone use it? How do you like it ? I played with it briefly and it was very consolidated... but also provided little information. I need to consolidate/move the buffs somehow. The standard blizzard UI gets in the way... to the point where it's hard to see rotface turn around to slime-spray.
* Turn skada off during raids. If I care how I am doing healing wise, I'm going to go to our log dumps anyways.
* Turn Omen off off while healing. I don't pull aggro while healing... and I still have threat plates.
* Wander through the DBM/HuDmap options to turn off similar information being reported

Daewen suggests Dominos: I don't use bar mods for one reason. I don't mind the blizzard bars... and every time a major patch hits, the vast majority of mods go to hell. If your bars are down, your entire UI goes to hell with it. This is one of the major reasons I stick with the normal bars.

[Daewen]

I'm not sure I accept the argument against barmods, considering all mods can break on patch day, and if it's not a bar mod, it can be something else you depend upon for raiding. So either you mod, or you play modless. The Curse Client really, really is a great way to keep them updated and getting non-breaking versions of things. I've rarely had unplayable mods- far less often than unplayable instance servers.

Anyway, my primary goals with UI alteration (via options or mods), are for visibility and usability. If you buy my philosophy and subscribe to my newsletter, having more of the game world visible, and having an interface that lets you do what you need to when you need to without it being annoying or error-prone, is of major importance. Skipping detailed exhortation of this philosophy (meaning I deleted a tl;dr block here), let me get to being constructive:

If not using a particular class of mod (bar mod, unit frames), the UI scale could be used to reduce the amount of space some elements take up. Usually each mod supports scaling individually, so that you can keep certain indicators large and readable (DBM warnings), and reduce the size/space of other things (font, height of ElkBuffBars, timestamps off chat window).

Placement wise, scaling things down may help make room so that they don't overlap. Try and place more things below where your character appears, since not so much tends to happen behind you (unless you're facing the wrong way), but placing things so that you can see the full width of the screen and above your character. The exception is just for things that you need to be watching often- your eyes should be naturally on or near your character, which is why I have ArcHud (health, mana) right in the center with the same scrolling battle text near that (but with much smaller text). For me, I have grid on the left edge, ElkBuffBars on the right edge, DBM timers under the target frame, and the 'large' version of a timer (when it's under 10 seconds) come dead-center over my character.

[Tsquared!]

It may also be a matter of preference...but as a healer...there is no real need to know how far Tex is ahead of everyone else in terms of threat (it has no bearing as to what you are doing...which is different if you are a dps and have to watch it). Also, I turn my recount off when I'm in combat...there is no reason to know what the healing meters are while you are in combat and it just takes up screen space. Just those two addons will make your screen a little cleaner.

[Werehamster]

Another thing you can do for a bit more screen space is to set the ui scaling percentage down. I have mine down to about 70%, which makes all of the buttons and the minimap smaller, giving more space for other addons. In my specific case, I sneak recount into one of the corners on top of the griffins and my latency meter into the other. It also gives a little bit more room inbetween the minimap and the right action bars, although I only have my map-coord mod in there now. I also use addons which are lower opacity and sit near the middle of the screen, but it looks like HuDmap basically requires you to keep the entire middle of the screen clear.

In your specific case, I would definitely go back to the built-in consolidated buffs. There is only so much room for vertically scrolling information on a screen. Also, what Chuck said. I tend to not show Omen when healing... although I don't think it has a spec-based config, so I end up having to turn it on manually when tanking or dpsing.

[Texaporte]

I freed up a lot of UI space by installing Dominos, which lets you organize and re-arrange your action bars. I have become addicted to it... I'll post a CC of my UI when I get home tonight.

[tethealla]

bar mods: So yes, if a new patch comes out and half your mods fail, your entire UI is out of whack. There are several key pieces which would make this upheaval worse. I choose to not replace these: bars and overall frames (like xperl). Grid comes close... and if it was ever completely broken, I'd cry (softly).

If I was completely used to my bars via a bar mod and it completely broke and I was dumped back to my standard action bars, I'd have to spend time resetting them up and I'd be completely off my game. I don't actually mind the default bars much. I usually don't find I need more than 20isgh direct hotkeys (I map left actionbar to F1-10, leaving a couple bag hotkeys available). Maybe I'm wrong... but It's how I always have played. As a note, I do use the curse client... I'm actually a premium member. woot for addon support.

Cleanup: I was planning on dumping skada (damage/healing meters), and omen while healing anyway... that and buff consolidation
I hadn't though about scaling my UI. I'll think about this. I am getting older and am on the verge of needing glasses. I'm not sure I want to make the problem worse by making everything smaller. Maybe a compromise: a small percentage like 90% could provide me some space, but still not make me squint too much.

Let me do this in stages. First the big ones. remove skada, omen, and consolidate my buffs. If this isn't enough, I'll scale my UI. If I'm still a mess I'll consider dominos since all of you are so fond of it. If I do that, I'll be back for advice in setup.

Andy: You might consider moving your latency meter into a broker bar like chocolate bar (you can see mine on the top left of my screen).

Thanks all of you for your advice.