Reader UI of the week: Fabian

This week's Reader UI goes out to all the lovely folks on the other side of the Pond that spend time with us here at WoW Insider! When I saw this particular submission land in the Reader UI mailbox with its gorgeous custom art, I knew it was time to showcase some great talent (and some really interesting screen shots) from the EU side of the house. This week's 1440x900 UI was submitted to us by reader Fabian who just finished his apprenticeship as a Digital Media Designer. (Grats Fabian!) For those of you who are curious about this lovely Alliance-themed UI layout, there are several more screen shots, lots of details, and an Q&A with Fabian after the jump.

WoW Insider: So tell us a bit about you and your WoW character, Fabian!

Fabian: I just finished my 3-year apprenticeship as digital media designer and my daily work consists of the design and realization of complete websites. It should be obvious that I'm very interested in the graphical part of customizing World of Warcraft [UIs.] I'm on Ysera (EU) where I transferred. My main is a level 70 Feral Night Elf Druid named Feilas.

WI: So, what inspired you to create this fantastic UI?

Fabian: After a few months [of using custom UIs,] I became sick of those same-looking interfaces that were based on Skinner. I decided it was time for a switch. I won't say it's a bad Add-On but it's not really satisfying when 8 out of 10 Interfaces look like the same. You know: 2 colored gradient, a little bit of alpha and that's it? It was not for me.

WI: And once you'd decided that it wasn't for you?

Fabian: I launched Photoshop and made these graphics. [These graphics are] based on a little website layout i created about 2 years ago. After finishing up the graphical part, I had to figure out how to display them. From there, I modified the Add-On "XArt" by "Moonsorrow" and after maybe 4 or 5 hours it was finally done.

WI: What are all the mods you use as parts of your interface?

Fabian: A full listing? Ok, here you go:

• Atlas (Dungeon Loots)
• BarTender 3 (Action Bars with Stance-Change)
• BigWigs (Boss Warnings)
• Cartographer (World Map with coordinates)
• ClassTimer (Shows HoTs, DoTs and other things)
• ClearFont2 (Changes the WoW Standard Fonts)
• ClosetGnome (Switch outfits)
• Confab (My fav. Chat-Modification. Nothing more than i need)
• cyCircled with _Vol-Texture (Button-Style)
• FaTextures (Modified XArt with my own Textures)
• FuBar (well known)
• Grid (Raid Listing)
• KTM (Threat Meter)
• oCB (Very nice CastingBar)
• OmniCC (Displays the cooldowns)
• oRA2 (CT_RaidAssist Alternative. Shows MainTank Targets and a few cool-downs)
• Pitbull (Unit Frames)
• RatingBuster (Because i need to know if i really need an Item)
• SCT (Scrolling Combat Text, should be known)
• SellValue (Displays the Vendor-Sell-Price)
• TinyTip (Custom Tooltip)

WI: And what would you say about the different screen shots you sent in? What are we looking at in each?

Fabian: #1 shows the standard interface while playing solo. There's nothing special there, just that most of the stuff is displayed on the left. #2 just shows that there are 2 hidden actionbars with stuff that i don't need too often (mount, food, pets). #3 shows me solo in combat. There you'll notice that I display some stuff on the right side, too. Here it's ClassTimer, SCT Status (Rudelführer / Leader of the Pack) and the ToolTips for Buttons/NPCs). #4 is the Party View. Nothing special here. And finally #5 shows the 10-person Raid view including our really good mate Prince Malchezaar, the MainTank-Targets and KTM.

While I have to admit, this is a really attractive UI, and I really like what Fabian did with it -- I'm going to have to wait for someone to make the Horde version of it. I'd feel kind of silly running around with the Alliance banner smack in the middle of my screen while I'm sneaking around on my Troll Rogue.

If you'd like to share your cool and unique UI designs thereby giving us a gallery of them from all over the place, then drop a line to readerui@gmail.com with all the information and some screen shots! You never know -- yours might be the next UI of the week.

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