Comments on: Building an Efficient Interface: Part 1 — Action Bars

By: Strobe

Strobe — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:05:13 +0000

Yes, I like the idea of removing the counter for consumables. I certainly agree that if information is unnecessary, it’s just going to take longer to process. I’ll look into hiding mine.

In regard to proc/timed display, Ninoa mentioned an incredible contender: Power Auras. I haven’t used it since 3.2 due to performance issues and it was lacking a few conditions, but the development is pretty fast and the display itself can be beyond eye-catching.

Other than that, I have experimented with some similar information displays — including TellMeWhen, NeedToKnow, SBF setups, etc. — but have not found a definitive way that works for me. I’m hoping that SBF’s future versions and some work on Power Auras will lend to the level of proc display zen that I so crave.

On another note, Iron, your Gravatar monster is completely and utterly epic. Certainly beats my obese, defecating beetle.

By: Ninoa

Ninoa — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:08:26 +0000

Delicious post, my love.

Good point about the quantity, Ironshod. While I don’t really find it to be in the way generally, it does look much tidier. :)

I agree that proc effects need to stand out a bit more, otherwise you’ll just lose them in the clutter of SCT or buffs. I’ve been using TellMeWhen for my warrior’s DPS spec as the spec has procs all over the place, but I’m sure many other addons (Power Auras?) can pull off the same. I’ve also started using it on my druid now, showing me procs like Omen of Clarity, but it can also tell me if the target has or lacks certain (de)buffs (which is a nice reminder for Faerie Fire on longer fights), together with some other similar features. It’s pretty nice, but unfortunately it lacks profiles for spec switches, which makes it a bit awkward when you abuse your offspec as much as I do. ;)

I personally wouldn’t recommend fitting proc effects into your action bars – at least, I know that I need to have them ‘in my face’ in order to notice them. :)

By: Ironshod

Ironshod — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:51:06 +0000

Great post (it’s becoming a habit it seems!) – I have a similar approach but I think it’s worth considering removing the count element from things like reagents and potions for being in combat. In my opinion when one is in combat, the actual number of health potions or so forth is immaterial, merely that one *is* available. When the human eye scans images, I think it’s somewhat unavoidable that some amount of processing goes on understanding all of the text (ie processing the number) – personally I’d recommend another mouseover function either stacked, out-of-combat or elsewhere that shows counts – in that way you can get an overview of numbers when you have time to process the information and don’t deal with it in the middle of combat. Very minor difference though!

Personally, I still struggle with some time windowed proc type abilities – such as the Retribution ‘instant – FOL’ type ability – and struggle to spot these and act on the information. I think I might end up coding something in KGPanels or the like to spcifically call these out. I know several SCT type addons might work as well, but my combat text gets cluttered enough with the existing warnings and DBM. BadKitty has a similar function for Omen of Clarity procs, and it’s the function I use most (although I try to watch the omniCC style timers too).

Anyhow, I’m also using Bartender at the moment, it’s well featured and plays nicely with ButtonFacade for a little prettying up of the UI.

Keep up the good work!