http://www.battle.net/forums/thread.aspx?FN=sc2-general&T=1207685&P=2

On page 2 post number 28.

Anyone else thinks that its too bad?

Quote

All UI layout is defined in external files, so this should be possible. However, we are not planning on having any user-friendly support for this (i.e. no UI Editor).

You'll probably just need to learn some XML and possibly LUA to be able to edit the UI

Unrelated but I think it says something about the UMS community when the map maker series has almost double the replies to the next largest FAQ.

EDIT: Second thought, the UMS community is more widespread whereas the melee community is concentrated in the same couple websites (GosuGamers, TLNET).

It might not be as unrelated as you think...I sort of foresaw that Blizzard would not make changing the interface easy for the lay person (i.e someone who has no idea about LUA or XML or programming stuff)...My theory is that Blizzard is worried about people modifying the game to the point of being unrecognizable as Starcraft, that the core game of Starcraft becomes forgotten. I mean sure, UMS is more popular and giving the players more power to customize the gameplay experience might encourage more people to buy the game, but it doesn't help Starcraft as a brand name.

Quote from MalFunkShun

It might not be as unrelated as you think...I sort of foresaw that Blizzard would not make changing the interface easy for the lay person (i.e someone who has no idea about LUA or XML or programming stuff)...My theory is that Blizzard is worried about people modifying the game to the point of being unrecognizable as Starcraft, that the core game of Starcraft becomes forgotten. I mean sure, UMS is more popular and giving the players more power to customize the gameplay experience might encourage more people to buy the game, but it doesn't help Starcraft as a brand name.

Yes, it does help the Starcraft name because it all runs on the Starcraft engine. Modding sometimes changes SC to a point where it is unrecognizable to the original game, but it still runs on the SC engine. All that is needed is for everything to require that they own the game and it helps SC in the long run.

As long as people can't change the UI for melee I'm fine with it.