Totem Timers — visual and interaction design
A Blizzard-looking instrument
The addon deliberately uses native-feeling tooltip frame styling: a black translucent backing, muted earthy border, familiar spell icons, restrained gold countdown numbers and compact type. It sits as a movable four-column instrument rather than a conventional configuration window.
The code creates a panel sized for four 34px elemental icons, spaced 5px apart, with two 26px supporting icons above it. Its visible order is Earth, Water, Fire, Air, distinct from the internal game/native index order. This is a genuine interaction choice, not just a technical accident.
No custom icon textures or fonts are bundled. All imagery is referenced from the game client's existing UI/spellbook, making the interface feel at home within old WoW.
Empty state has a purpose
alwaysShow defaults to true, so even before the player has placed a totem the four elemental compartments show a dim familiar icon and -- for remaining time. During combat a red exclamation appears over each missing element; outside combat the exclamation is hidden.
This is not evidence of a gameplay rule saying four totems should always be cast. It is a visual status cue. Its usefulness, annoyance or interpretation needs genuine player testing. A player can hide the whole panel with /totemtimers hide, then bring it back with show.
The auxiliary shield slot stays visible even when shield buffs are absent, with a dim Lightning Shield icon and red !; the weapon enchant icon hides when no temporary enchant is detected. These asymmetries match current code and should be explained in screenshots if the portfolio later adds them.
Shields and enchants at a glance
An active shield displays a charge number in green, gold or red, inviting the player to notice a low-charge state without scanning another buff bar. A weapon imbue shows a small icon, with the item tooltip on hover.
The current implementation does not measure enchant duration or show main and off hands independently. A visual redesign should not claim these are present.
Movement and frame ownership
Use /totemtimers unlock to drag with the left mouse button, lock to finish, and reset to return to the default center-relative position. The setting and anchor survive reload via account-wide SavedVariables. The /ttimers alias offers the same commands. There is no standalone settings screen or keybinding UI.
Design questions for future testing
- Are time fonts readable at common UI scales and color-vision settings?
- Does a red ! for each empty element encourage unnecessary totem casting?
- Would users want a neutral no-warning mode or only warnings for previously active elements?
- Does the shield corner show enough context when tooltip charge reads zero or Earth Shield has more than six charges?
- Is a high-frequency 0.1-second refresh necessary for every tooltip-backed auxiliary state?
- Do the side icons and tooltip hover work reliably next to other addons?
These are unapproved questions, not new features or tested accessibility conclusions.
Document information
Creative direction: Babuni.dev.
Source: current UI-building Lua and original README; no screenshot assets included in this repository.