World of Warcraft UI Panel2009-11-09Among the many accomplishments of World of Warcraft, one of the unsung innovations with the greatest impact was the ability for users (fluent in LUA scripting and XML) to customize the game's interface. The user community embraced this idea, creating thousands of interface mods for every use. Crafting? Gathering? Raiding? Healing? Maps? Whatever your play style, someone's figured out a better interface display to help. Many of these ideas eventually worked their way into the main game interface. Needless to say, Blizzard adamantly supports the online community, in part with an annual BlizzCon panel detailing the process of user interface design.Last year the topic was programming. But for this year's panel, entitled "The Ancient Secrets of WoW UI Design 2: Electric Boogaloo," the focus was on the art and design. A question and answer period followed the panel, allowing players and mod makers to pick designers' b...
