World of Warcraft: Dragonflight HUD and UI Revamp
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Get ready for a fresh-looking Heads-Up Display (HUD), and User Interface (UI) revamp designed to be adjustable, effective, attractive, and easily accessible.

With the Dragonflight update, we’re making sweeping changes to World of Warcraft’s HUD and UI from the ground up. Our aim is to provide a clutter-free layout and allow players to customize their HUD to better fit their individual needs.

A Whole New Look

Technology has advanced since we first developed the UI in 2004. We now have more tools at our fingertips to create and improve quality-of-life features. We wanted to modernize the appearance of the player’s layout and view while maintaining the original design’s charm and personality. And there is no better time to deliver these changes than with the release of Dragonflight.




Right away, players will immediately notice the more apparent changes. For instance, the minimap and health bar are more prominent, and we’ve removed some clutter to provide greater viewable space. Also, while keeping to the iconic design, we’ve cleaned up the appearance of the Action Bar. We also added a fresh set of Gryphons and created Wyverns for our Horde-loving heroes. There’s also a new look for the loot and inventory display, and players can use Combined Backpack functionality to help them find and organize their inventory items more quickly.


Make It Your Own

Welcome to Edit mode. With Edit mode, you will now have the ability to tweak, personalize, and move (almost) anything anywhere to your heart’s desire. Not only are various elements of the HUD movable, but each individual component has a variety of options to help you get everything just right.



Once you set everything set how you like it, you’ll be able to name, save, edit, copy, and share it with the community. And, for those that change specs often, the feature is designed to remember which specialization you’re in. As you switch between specs, the feature will remember the HUD layout you have for that spec and change accordingly.


Will this new feature replace the ability to use third-party add-ons entirely? Not at all. We recognize that add-ons provide many opportunities for players to customize their experience, but not all players utilize them. However, with the help of our user research team, we are working to meet our community’s needs. We include elements that some add-ons provide to the base UI. Those who wish to can continue using the add-ons they like.


Improved Accessibility to Make Things Easier

Improving accessibility features for our players is at the forefront of much of the design of the new UI and providing ways for players to have a better experience is vital. Here are some of the changes that we’ve been working on to help improve accessibility for players:

  • New Option: Press and Hold Casting – When enabled, the player can press and hold a keyboard hotkey to continually cast a spell on an Action Bar without repeatedly pressing the button.
  • New Feature: Interact Key – Pressing the Interact Key will enable you to interact with NPCs and objects with a key press instead of a mouse click. Interactive NPCs and objects will gain an icon above their heads as you move close enough to interact.
  • New Targeting System: Action Combat – This feature works alongside the standard targeting features and automatically targets enemies as you approach them. This will allow you to start casting abilities immediately and dynamically switch between targets based on where you’re looking.

Looking Ahead

Refining the UI is an ongoing project; we want to continue to make changes and improvements. In addition to polishing the current set of available features, we intend to tackle many other UI elements and include more features further down the line, like:

  • Additional Edit Mode options
  • Group Manager
  • Raid Frames
  • Quest Tracker
  • And more updates to the art

We’ll have more information and details on these and other features as we move toward the launch of Dragonflight. We look forward to getting your feedback as you experience all these changes and more.



World of Warcraft®: Dragonflight™ will be available on or before December 31, 2022. Visit the Dragonflight site to pre-order. Check WorldofWarcraft.com/news for updates, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

See you in the Dragon Isles!
This article was originally published in forum thread: World of Warcraft: Dragonflight HUD and UI Revamp started by Lumy View original post
Comments 84 Comments
  1. Tumble's Avatar
    Had a play around with it today and it looks poorly designed. Looks like it was designed as a mobile game honestly.

    The mini map is too big and I can't figure out how to make it smaller, I'd also like to change its shape and possibly its skin.

    The player frame is some odd monochrome looking thing while the target and focus frames are still the old looking design yet somehow worse.

    The chat box is fine other than the fact that I can't put the typing box on the top and move the whole box all the way down.

    I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I can't use the party/raid frames as a single player.

    Not a fan of the new cast bar.

    A lot of my issues aren't a big deal, it's just that I'm used to the ui a certain way and I'd like the ability to keep even all the old skins with the new functionality, that'd be perfect for me.
  1. Dch48's Avatar
    I can see I'll be returning things back to the way they are now. As much as possible anyway. I see no reason for these changes.
  1. FelPlague's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Celement View Post
    It's a step in the right direction that said they are still about 4 years behind elv ui
    They are, but elvui is a CPU whore, and as a long time elvui user, I am finally dropping it., reclaiming my CPu back.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Gloriandus View Post
    Doesn't look like the chat frame is movable. I've always hated that you can't move it closer to the bottom. Also, haven't seen any options to "fade out" bars via transparency sliders, just show/hide.
    It has always been moveable...
  1. HansOlo's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Primohastat View Post
    Finally WoW get UI adjustements SWTOR had on its release back in 2011.

    Question is, when add-on usage will be removed completely.
    Question is: When will Apple/Android disable apps?

    Also - UI options back in 2011 didn't kill WoW(stand up 1min for all the killed WoW killers please).

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