Bento Box II

Pixel font and nothing about it is unique in the least, sorry to be the one to tell you.

Bah, don't listen to the pixel font haters. I'd kill for a download link.

I love minimalistic UIs and I like the frame placement in this one (I don't care at all about "unique" for frame placement) but I absolutely agree about the pixel font, it's a bad choice. Its poor readability means that the looks of the UI are directly in conflict with its functionality, and that's a bad trait for a UI to have whether its looks are geared for minimalism or to showcase a bunch of cheesy decorative texture frames.

Pixel fonts are useful if you need to fit a lot of information into a small space, and that information does NOT need to be read quickly. Like a damage meter, or the stuff you'd put in statblocks. But using an especially blocky and tiny pixel font for stuff like the name of the spell your target is casting? That's just bad design.

xenoglaux, my hero :D

I have to agree with Xeno, that stuff just isn't legible.

As such, I could still use this UI and sort of enjoy using it, but during intense combat I'd be looking at the icons and the bars i'd learnt the function of and responding to my memory of the fight timings and the vent calls, BUT... reading nothing.

So why not push the boat out and remove half the texts entirely? Go for icons, colours and hardly any texts, make meters and stuff disappear in combat and reappear after. Functional minimalism is what you should aim for, not "minimalistic" style at any cost. The quote marks are because pixel fonts are actually future/techno fonts in style. Not really the definition of minimalist in any sense.

The target cast bar at least needs an icon.

4/5 for effort though keep at it.

Hey, thanks for the feedback folx. It's interesting to see what sticks out for others when they see something for the first time that you yourself spend so much time looking at. It seems to be the pixel font.....! Perhaps I should explain my choice a little.....

Some people LOVE them and some HAAAATE them, but I'm pretty indifferent really. I chose this font because I play on a 13" laptop, and I needed a font that would be clean and clear at a very small size, which this achieves for me. Believe me, I tried lots of different fonts before settling on this one, and now I guess I've gotten used to it. Non-pixel fonts were too blurry at the small size I wanted them to be, and if I made them bigger they took up too much of the screen. I could have chosen a different pixel font I guess, but like I say, I'm used to this one now and have no problems reading it quickly if need be.... If anyone has a suggestion for one they think looks better, I'm all ears!

As for the UI not being "unique", don't apologize for telling me so. Guilty as charged! I'll be the first to admit it's a ripoff of some great UI's I've seen. It totally works for me, so I don't mind a bit......

Cheers!

try semplice, one of the two or three pixel fonts i'd ever use, if any.

http://pixelfonts.style-force.net

On a completely unrelated note (and I'm sorry for abusing your thread like this, but there's no PM function), why'd you make a new account, atho?