I like the colors in the mockup and I also like the colored scrollbar with the dots to show that it is grab-able.
However, I think the change is too drastic to make before R1. Remember that R1 is suppose to look more or less like BeOS R5, although there have been some fairly major visual alterations already so it is not out of the question.
That being said I have been steadily working on fixing/adding theme support back to Haiku including the ability to color some never before themable items such as scrollbars, slider thumbs, list boxes, etc.
Once it is possible to change the color of more interface elements the next task will be to update the Appearance Preferences panel in order to more easily facilitate applying different color schemes.
Perhaps your ideas can be incorporated into a theme that the user can select. I wouldn’t hold my breath for this to happen anytime in the near future but it’s good that you are trying out these looks so that they can be expanded upon in the future.
No, no. You misunderstand. You don`t have to think of only the developers and present users. If you want to develop for the public do so, but do so in a way that IMPROVES the GUI’s ability to be used by them, not just some flash, not something to add coolness, please add usability.
I am trying to limit who you design for, I am trying to push the point that real improvement in functions is more important than pure coolness features.
We are putting you thru the fire burn off the tinsel glitter to extract the gold that exists in you.
WE WANT THE BEST FROM YOU, WE WANT YOUR GOLD!!!
Show us your best, not what the mass-market glitter looks like. The calculator shows you have it in you, and I know that people like me don`t, so show us the things that will make us go wow!
WRT the OP’s new GUI designs, are there any other changes than using a blue gradient for selected menu items, the scroll knob and a pressed button? (BTW, how does the different colour of a pressed button improve DeskCalc’s usage?)
Don’t get me wrong, I do like esp. the menu stuff. Just like I did when it was first proposed.
But this can’t seriously be sold as a revamped GUI that will catapult Haiku into the new decade, can it?
cipri said:
“Soon he [stippi] was attacked, and people saying how great the current deskbar ist and he should change nothing.”
For people who’d like to judge themselves if he was actually attacked or if people stated their reasons for liking many of the current Deskbar’s features, here’s the thread from back then.
I think that a mockup is most interesting if the author lists what he has changed and most importantly why and what shortcomming the change is supposed to address.
[quote=cipri]Too bad, that stippi, ingo and axeld, seem now to be occupied with something else.
It’s a little pitty that the packagemanager is still not in a useable state.[/quote]
I agree, I am looking forward to the package manager.
The fact is, today Haiku looks 90-ish. Period. Every friend I’ve demoed Hiku, said this.
I think the whole concept of Haiku’s look 'n feel sould be revisited, adding just different shade of yellow won’t help. For example, scroll bars are still the same MacOS 9 from distant past.
Moreover, there’s portable devices taking over desktops. I would seriously consider being more touchscreen friendly.
I use Jelly Bean tablet every day. It’s as responsive as Haiku, nicely designed, and has tons of applications. There’s x86 tablets on the way…
Ditch the “3D look” of window borders, scrollbars etc. Simplify them.
Haiku website is a good example of modern, colorful but sleek design. Yet functional
Does Haiku need a deskbar? I think no. Press Windows key or use mouse gesture, that activates some sort of panel (something like Dashboard on OSX), that displays grid of live thumbnails of each open application.
Desktop redesign - More interactivness, replicants along with icons.
[quote=vootele]The fact is, today Haiku looks 90-ish. Period. Every friend I’ve demoed Hiku, said this.
I think the whole concept of Haiku’s look 'n feel sould be revisited, adding just different shade of yellow won’t help. For example, scroll bars are still the same MacOS 9 from distant past.
Moreover, there’s portable devices taking over desktops. I would seriously consider being more touchscreen friendly.
I use Jelly Bean tablet every day. It’s as responsive as Haiku, nicely designed, and has tons of applications. There’s x86 tablets on the way…[/quote]
I do not understand why it would be a disadvantage? Haiku GUI is very clean, simple, elegant, comfortable and quick to use.
Haiku is designed for desktop, not for tablets.
GUI graphic effects reduce the performance and responsiveness of the system. Have a negative impact on FPS in 3D games.
In the world is more than a billion computers.
[quote=vootele]Ok, maybe some desing ideas:
Ditch the “3D look” of window borders, scrollbars etc. Simplify them.
Haiku website is a good example of modern, colorful but sleek design. Yet functional
Does Haiku need a deskbar? I think no. Press Windows key or use mouse gesture, that activates some sort of panel (something like Dashboard on OSX), that displays grid of live thumbnails of each open application.
Desktop redesign - More interactivness, replicants along with icons.[/quote]
And what’s wrong with that? The '90s saw the best desktop GUIs ever. (OS9 and Windows 95 - the latter of which was so successful that it was replicated directly in every succeeding version of Windows until 7.) After the '90s desktop OSes have just been loaded down with glitz and endless fiddling with what was already perfectly fine.
[quote]Moreover, there’s portable devices taking over desktops. I would seriously consider being more touchscreen friendly.
I use Jelly Bean tablet every day. It’s as responsive as Haiku, nicely designed, and has tons of applications. There’s x86 tablets on the way…[/quote]
If you try to create a hybrid UI that works equally well on two wildly disparate sets of input and output methods, you’re going to wind up with a bad compromise that doesn’t work well on either. The reason your Android tablet and its applications are responsive and pleasant on a tablet is because they were designed for a tablet. Haiku is designed for desktop. Neither desktop nor tablet OSes should try to be something they’re not, it’s only going to make everybody unhappy.
[quote=vootele]Ok, maybe some desing ideas:
Ditch the “3D look” of window borders, scrollbars etc. Simplify them.
Haiku website is a good example of modern, colorful but sleek design. Yet functional
Does Haiku need a deskbar? I think no. Press Windows key or use mouse gesture, that activates some sort of panel (something like Dashboard on OSX), that displays grid of live thumbnails of each open application.[/quote]
3D UI elements help to distinguish areas and items from one another in a way that mimics natural depth distinction to the human eye without requiring special aids like glasses. It’s perfect for making items more clear and distinct without having to resort to color-coding or overly large boundary spacing. If you want to drag UI styling back to the days of Windows 2.0 and Macintosh System 6, there’s always Windows 8.
The Haiku website is an excellent example of minimalist but pleasant web design, I agree - but applications are not websites and websites are not applications, and even the Haiku website uses subtle 3D effects, anyway.
If you make the Deskbar a hidden pop-over, all you’re doing is creating a “no-man’s land” on the screen where you don’t want to have anything important because it might get hidden when you need to switch applications, see which ones you have open, open the menu, or check the notification icons. What Haiku actually needs is the exact opposite: a way to make the Deskbar inhabit a reserved portion of the screen that applications can’t overlap (at the user’s discretion, of course) so that I can maximize a window without having to drag it out of the way of the Deskbar by hand.
And what good are application thumbnails, anyway? They’re not big enough to convey anything meaningful about the application that the icon and window title don’t. If you need to see details about a window you have open, why would you not just switch to that window?
The GUI look is like a fashion. A Classic suit looks great last several centuries. At the other hand, the more revolutionary fashion is, the less time it is considered appropriate. Many kinds of suits, specially designed for the fashion show, are worn never and by nobody.
Many new OSes look cool the first 30 seconds, then the user has a boring experience of using them. Personally, I see people that praise Windows 7 can look, but in production environment preffer to switch to Windows’95 style GUI because it’s more practical. An example of computer specific design is font shapes. It may be cool to see how many different and extravagant letters computer can display, but the simpler the font, the less eye fatigue.
As a functional note, Haiku would probaly need configurable or theming GUI, but it isn’t priority right now.
Nah, just have a blinky, flashy, vulgar decorator and a classy, elegant one… :)[/quote] Zing! But then the noophiles will complain if the documentation uses screenshots with the old decorator, and the rest of us will complain if it does the opposite…
In all seriousness, I think the Haiku team is going to have to come up with an official policy on look & feel eventually…I just hope they stick with the simplicity of the current look…
I like everything but the dimples on the scrollbars - they just look weird when there’s a bunch of them on a really long handle, like the one on the bottom.
Nah, just have a blinky, flashy, vulgar decorator and a classy, elegant one…
Regards,
Humdinger[/quote]
Personally, I’m fine with changing the look and feel of Haiku’s windows SO LONG AS IT DOESN’T IMPACT SPEED OR RESPONSIVENESS! I actually think that making changes between R1 and R2 (THAT DO NOT SLOW THE SYSTEM DOWN) might be a good idea. Hopefully my emphasis on EFFICIENCY OVER EYE CANDY!!! was made clear.
This is a screenshot, not a mockup. What do you think?[/quote]
I like it, but if there are too much of them, I get distracted; my eyes follow the first all the way to the last. I think it might be better if there were only three or four of them for the whole scrollbar.
Also, lightness of the scrollbar catches my eye off guard,as if its trying to blend with the textbox. Maybe could the scrollbar boxe’s line be made darker or wider?
[QUOTE=kidd106]I like it, but if there are too much of them, I get distracted; my eyes follow the first all the way to the last. I think it might be better if there were only three or four of them for the whole scrollbar.[/QUOTE]
I guess that is 3 strikes against dimples along the scrollbar like in this proposed design. How about instead of having little dots all the way along the scrollbar we copy BeOS and have either 3 (larger) dots or 3 lines in the middle of the scrollbar?
Screenshot of the BeOS Scrollbar preferences for reference:
The BeOS knob style would be OK (I’d prefer the three little squares).
Keeping your dots may be better, however. There are already some places where those dots are used to indicate areas a user can drag something around: The resizing corner, the Deskbar tray, split panes like in the Filetypes prefs. Maybe go with a small knob made of 2x3 closely spaced dots.
I’m not completely sure I like the dark blue colour of the scrollbars, but that may also be just years of conditioning…
