Re: Me being Picky: A few minor points

[Eric Raslich <rasliche msu edu>]

Sam Illingworth wrote:

On 15 Jan 2010, at 08:02 PM, Joshua Landau <joshua landau ws googlemail com> wrote:

The title sums it up; this is me being extremely picky on the smallest of points. Why? That's how UI works in my view.

First of all, the default of a black colour scheme is... odd. Not only is is odd, but I find it inconvenient. It is so much less neutral than Grey (Mac, E17), much less calm than Blue (Windows, lxde, xde, kde) and not as natural/human-y as GNOME 2.x

In fact, I can't think of a single good connotation except for minimalism. And even that doesn't work, as black is a lot more prominent than white almost all of the time on today's desktops. I just don't like having a desktop that looks like it hates you for some inexplicably deep reason.

My point: We should start with a much nicer default look, and have several skins available in the touch of a button. This isn't customising, but theme-ing the same way wallpaper-changing is. And, like wallpaper changing you'll use someone else's themes instead of making your own. This may be a small deal to you, but it works for me.

Second; the overview is pretty much a static image. If you hover over something it should react. Yes, it doesn't do anything, but there is one simple reason why. It makes that person feel in control. If people can make stuff happen, they have power. That equates to happiness. I got that tip from a post by some guy in the Experimental Gameplay Project and I think it works.

A few font-colour changes and some highlighting and increasing window sizes by 1% on hover and all those things. They don't have to fade or anything - it isn't about eyecandy. Just some simple changes. And theme-able ones.

Last but not least.... or I'll tell you when I remember xD.

I hope this made sense and all.

______________________________

Not only does it make sense, but I couldn't agree more. Black is scary. That's why terminals are black. And keyboards.

Sam

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I think you're making a big deal about something that, in the end, comes down to personal taste. While it has been a month or so since I used the gnome shell exclusively, the black color was really appealing to me. To say that it needs to start with a "much nicer" default look is saying that the look now is bad (or... mean?) and I think that's a little unfair. Black is a lot easier on the eyes when combined to with lighter text, and that's a proven fact. Not that I'm against other combinations by any means, but I think it's a little off to say that the default look is bad as it is. It wasn't the color that makes it seem minimal, it was probably just the lack of features. I think your "Second" point is a much better one. User interaction is something that will probably not change much between users (as far as effects when hovering over windows and the like) but colors and fonts could.

rasliche