If nothing else, I would just like the world map

Wow..... I gotta admit, that looks pretty cool.  I play the majority of the game in the cloth map mode, so although I do like this world, it wouldn't make that much difference to my overall enjoyment of the game.  However with an interface like that, I can see how it would be an improvement.  Anyone know what happened to this UI?

I think it just got lost while reinventing the wheel

That minimap is very nice, much better then what is currently in game.

It's a mock-up...

ahahaha, me and Kryo both replied at the same time!

I suppose I guessed right!

I think something even more intrinsic to the magic-fantasy-adventure theme is in order. Less buttony and windowy, more parchmenty and crystal bally. The UI textures should be richer and more detailed, and should use concepts from within the theme to enhance immersion.

It really doesn't look good at all, I don't agree with you guys at all. It's missing way too much info, like resources, recent events, unit vitals and so on. It's also taking up way too much space.

Add on top of that the list of cities, units moving, city HUDs, tooltips and it's easy to see why they went with something reasonable instead.

Edit: the texture and the minimap look better, for sure.

55/60 HP on a scout! It has a "falcon" trait! Oh oh, and advance ballista, as if catapults wasn't cool enough... must get!

Actually... on second thought, I don't really like it all that much. For example: what's the point of giving a numerical for population, settlement, heroes... the empire tree does that better (despite its flaws). Maybe I just got used to the current Elemental UI, but it's not really bothering me all that much. *shrugs*

PS: Can you imagine the mob swarm that would be coming out of that forest?

Our current interface simply has too much there that get in the way of usability and simplicity.  

For example, does the faction progress graph really need to be on the overworld interface?  Wouldn't it have made more sense to put this in the "Kingdom Report" section?  Also, a unit's actions should be front and center on the screen, not buried under a tab.

The whole interface needs more text labels, really.  The most important buttons for a city is obviously for building improvements and units.  You need to make the most important buttons the biggest, because your users will be using them the most.

I love how the mock-up interface had the picture of the selected unit displayed so vividly and clear.  There is no question here, who you have selected.  Half the time when I'm playing now, I often do not even know who or what the heck I'm targetting without squinting at the bottom.

The bottom line is that it seems to me that an artist designed the original UI and a programmer designed the current UI.  I'm probably not far off from saying the same about the whole game in general.  There is no "magic" or diversity in the color scheme.  It all feels so plain and ordinary.  Graphics are not too important to me in video games, but I know we could have done a lot better here.  I mean, just look at what we're getting with HoMM 6:

I'm not asking for the game to look as detailed as this, a lot of the modding creates limitations with what you can do but... come on!  You can't tell me that in 2010 Elemental couldn't have looked a little better.

Food is listed when negative, so if it does not show you have zero.