I'm in the camp of liking the new design. On the old design I would often click a skill, then click again thinking I missed click just to realize it wasn't ready yet. In this new design all I have to do is make a cursory glance across my bars to see what is ready, and in the case of a full circle just a quick glance to see how much time is left for it to be ready. My eyes are free to pay more attention to the the party bar for skills and spells to help the party as well as watching the enemies' cast bar. This design has really freed up my eyes for other use and allows me to plan my skills better during fights.