[Satrina]

I finally got around to polishing up Digits and releasing it. What the hell is Digits? It's the floating numbers for health and rage you see in my screenshots:

http://evilempireguild.org/SBF/images/SBFExample.jpg
http://evilempireguild.org/misc/SatUI.jpg

Digits will display your health and mana, rage, energy or runic power - whatever your class uses.

You can get it at WoWInterface or Curse:
Digits : WoWInterface Downloads : Combat Mods
Digits - Addons - Curse

[veneretio]

Very cool.

One thing though is I'm a bit concerned that a number for rage wouldn't be as good as a bar representation.

[Satrina]

On the flipside, I honestly cannot fathom why people would want bars. As I've said elsewhere in here before, I am one of those (apparently very rare) people who get no useful information in any way from a status bar that is used to show a quantity. On the other hand, I can observe a number in my peripheral vision and parse it without having to pay full attention to it.

So, I don't make things with bars. If people find my stuff useful, then great. If not, then great.

In the specific case of rage, though, I really can't see how even the most visually-savvy person could find a bar more useful than an absolute number for making decisions on ability use.

[Dots]

Cool that you finally released this one, gonna give it a try.

Personally I don't mind bars as background, it can give you an estimate before actually reading the number. To each their own I guess.

[Naaven]

Source: Satrina On the flipside, I honestly cannot fathom why people would want bars. ...In the specific case of rage, though, I really can't see how even the most visually-savvy person could find a bar more useful than an absolute number for making decisions on ability use.

Communication theory says that you process visual images and textual information with different parts of the brain, and different people would have different aptitudes associated with processing those different kinds of messages.

The majority of people process visual images more effeciently than text, which I only know because it's why military aircraft gauges are always displayed most prominently as dials and bars, rather than sterile numbers. There are always, however, numbers along with the dials to offer the precision that sterile numbers offer.

In the rage case, it would stand to reason that having a bar with numbers included as well would be the best way to have the most information, unless your one of those people who can process the textual info just as fast, in which case removing the bar would be desired, to clean up unneeded visuals.

So in other words, to each his own indeed.

[veneretio]

Source: Satrina So, I don't make things with bars. If people find my stuff useful, then great. If not, then great. In the specific case of rage, though, I really can't see how even the most visually-savvy person could find a bar more useful than an absolute number for making decisions on ability use.

Agreed, if the numbers don't work, find a different mod.

I've never tried just seeing rage as a number, but my hesitation is based on being able to interrupt the length of a bar faster than a number. (which in turn could impact how good I am at proper use of Heroic Strike)

Anyway... I'll stop derailin' the thread now. Cool, clean little addon.

[Prunetracy]

I tend to be more bar minded, myself.

To be fair, though, Satrina has a good point: Can you tell at a glance at your bar how much rage you have? Specifically, can you whether or not you have enough to use an ability?

I really doubt most people can tell the difference between 16 and 17 rage on their bar. Certainly the bar gives a rough idea of how much rage you have, but for useful information it comes up short.

I think a bar works well for something like health, where you really only need a rough idea of how much you have, especially in combat where your health fluctuates so much it may make numbers unreadable. For low values (rage and energy), numbers do a far better job of telling you exactly what you can do.

My peripheral vision is able to pick out my general rage amount well enough that I know whether or not I should be queuing heroic strike or not. But when I end up low on rage, I end up watching either the number or waiting for my abilities to light up on my action bars.

Both styles certainly work, which is why I use both bars and numbers in my UI.

[Inaara]

Very cool mod Satrina. Gonna dl it when I get home today!

[Satrina]

I don't think you're derailing, Vene. It's a relevant discussion to the addon, and readers may take something new to think about away from it.

I'm admittedly a very extreme case. I can't draw, end of story - I'm just not wired for that sort of thing. I've had an art teacher quietly suggest that perhaps art is not for me, and good friends who are professional artists just gave up trying to teach me =) For me to not understand how anyone could interpret a status bar only follows out of that.

[Ciderhelm]

Source: veneretio Very cool. One thing though is I'm a bit concerned that a number for rage wouldn't be as good as a bar representation.

A number for rage is far more useful to me than a bar. Health is where a number is not useful for me.

[Warwench]

i like this.. even on my IceHUD i find myself looking at the number, not the bar position.

Gonna give this a shot.

[bosephus]

I've used a few addons, including Satrina's Unit Frames, which also uses only numbers. I find that what is important to me is not whether there is a bar or not, but what color I see. Basically, if I see yellow or red, I know I am in trouble. I also don't process large numbers fast enough to feel like I understand what is going on (such as 4765/17560) so I always have converted it to a percentage figure. My rage and health meters both read as 0-100 and that great simplifies things for me.

Also that "low health" beep from MSBT is very helpful too.

[loquatious]

The only problem I have for the add on is not being able to move the Displayed number
On my UI it ends up underneath my Target frame

[Satrina]

Source: The text you should have read on the addon's page * Open up the Interface panel, it's in the AddOns list (/digits is a shortcut) * Press buttons, slide sliders. * While the interface frame is open, the digits displays are draggable to wherever you want them to be.

[Evelaula]

I love SBF so I think i'll have a play with this. Sounds like a good idea, and i've already partially moved towards reducing bar sizes/bar placement so i can see more of the game.

[Ciderhelm]

Love the mod, has helped clear up a good chunk of space.

[Sefrit]

I love this mod too. I hated looking at rage as a bar, wasn't precise enough for me. This mod is one I consider essential.

[Inaoe]

Hmm, interesting to see so many people watching exact rage numbers. My experience is, that I only glance at my rage bar to see if I can HS, and I do that usually when my rage jumps to a point somewhere between 50 and 100. Still depends on the fight though, sometimes I know I shouldn't HS even with a nearly full bar.

What decisions do you make on the exact numbers?

[Ciderhelm]

50 is the magic number for me on Heroic Strike. I won't touch it while grinding if I'm not at 50 or higher, so it's giving me a *very* quick glance to figure that out.

[Inaoe]

I see, so it's important to you to know that you're actually over 50 rage and not just close to it. Seems that I just do the same with the bar, maybe not so strict.

...

Hmm, the more I think about it ... I'm just not certain anymore that I really only look at the bar. I always have the number just next to it. Strange ...