Visual themes (Probably wrong list)
Visual themes (Probably wrong list)
- Subject: Visual themes (Probably wrong list)
- From: Fredrik Olsson <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2005 19:09:48 +0200
Probably completely wrong list, but hey, maybe I can get directions
anyway.
So far we have:
* Plain old Aqua.
* Unified toolbar look.
* Brushed metal.
* Pro Apps.
* Garageband (In a league of it's own)
And most recently
* iTunes 5 (Unified toolbar in a darker shade and less rounded corners)
And that is from Apple alone, am I missing some as well?
Except for the pro-apps I see no pattern in what theme is used and
for what application. The guidelines seems to be void, only slightly
updated to excuse the use of brushed metal for Finder in 10.3. But
brushed metal, Aqua and unified toolbar I can accept, they are
provided as standard, and could be put to good use, as I will give a
suggestion to.
But for the others I see just a huge signal of: "hey, the standard
visuals are not good enough for Apple, lets invent a new one!"
And if Aqua, metal and unified is not good enough for Apple, why
should they be good enough for other developers?
Same goes for guidelines, if not Apple try to follow them, barely
care to tweak them to fit new "designs". why should other developers
even care to read them?
Here is a bold suggestion (A good and hard long overdue overhaul for
10.5 perhaps?):
Keep Brushed metal, unified toolbar and Aqua. Throw everything else
overboard!
* Brushed metal - ONLY for applications that mimics real devices or
compliments external devices.
Calculator minics and actual calculator, and iPhoto complements
an actual digital camera so those are good examples.
* Unified toolbar - ONLY for applications that are everyday use apps.
Stuff that are very likely to be started at login and most of the
time just run in the background.
Mail is a good example, everyone start their mail app and just
have in the background, iChat fits well also. Same for iTunes,
everyone I know mainly use it to provide a soundtrack to their life.
Finder would fit as well, allways started, always in the back ready
for your command.
* Aqua - EVERYTHING ELSE. If it is not connected in anyway to any
kind of device existing outside of the harddrive, and not ment as an
background utility application, for the love of God keep it Aqua. If
Aqua is not good enough, then remake Aqua, do not invent something new!
If you want to go wild with your UI design there is a perfect place
for that: Dashboard!
For the rest of the applications; keep them simple and visually
consistent. It help the users, and it helps the developers.
regards
Fredrik Olsson
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