by gege » Tue May 25, 2010 8:02 pm
nohitter151 wrote:I've begun work on a skin for MM4, it looks like this so far:
...
I'm not sure if that's the type of thing you're looking for or not, but suggestions (and mockups of said suggestions) would be welcomed.
So, MM will finally look like a native aero application! That's great news.
Though I have some concerns regarding the overuse of glass. If misused, glass can make an interface look worse, instead of better.
As an example of a very balanced use of glass we can take Paint.NET 3.5 UI. I love the way it uses glass in thumbnail area. The subtle gradient used as toolbar background is also very good.
Using a completely glassed toolbar like you did, on the other hand, has two problems IMO:
1) The icons look weird
2) Is not a common practice
The Player area is a different case: I think it CAN be completely glassed, just like WPM11 used to be in Vista:
So, as an example, I used 7on icons + Paint.NET toolbar background to make a mockup of what I think would be better in your skin
Your player area is fine, IMO. I just didn't like the appearance of those tabbed options. I know where your inspiration came from, but I think the tab metaphor didn't work here. Maybe simple buttons would be better, so I also changed those in my mockup...
Finally, you know how much respect I have for your work, so please take this as a good criticism. My intention here is just to help you building better and better skins.
BTW, are we going to see a glassed version of Vitreous? (Hint, hint...)
[quote="nohitter151"]I've begun work on a skin for MM4, it looks like this so far:
...
I'm not sure if that's the type of thing you're looking for or not, but suggestions (and mockups of said suggestions) would be welcomed.[/quote]
So, MM will finally look like a native aero application! That's great news.
Though I have some concerns regarding the overuse of glass. If misused, glass can make an interface look worse, instead of better.
As an example of a very balanced use of glass we can take Paint.NET 3.5 UI. I love the way it uses glass in thumbnail area. The subtle gradient used as toolbar background is also very good.
[url=http://img517.imageshack.us/i/pdn35kirkland.jpg/][img]http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/7393/pdn35kirkland.th.jpg[/img][/url]
Using a completely glassed toolbar like you did, on the other hand, has two problems IMO:
1) The icons look weird
2) Is not a common practice
The Player area is a different case: I think it CAN be completely glassed, just like WPM11 used to be in Vista:
[url=http://img441.imageshack.us/i/wmp11auroraglassbyfedia.png/][img]http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/6583/wmp11auroraglassbyfedia.th.png[/img][/url]
So, as an example, I used 7on icons + Paint.NET toolbar background to make a mockup of what I think would be better in your skin
[url=http://img714.imageshack.us/i/mm4glass.png/][img]http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/8463/mm4glass.th.png[/img][/url]
Your player area is fine, IMO. I just didn't like the appearance of those tabbed options. I know where your inspiration came from, but I think the tab metaphor didn't work here. Maybe simple buttons would be better, so I also changed those in my mockup...
Finally, you know how much respect I have for your work, so please take this as a good criticism. My intention here is just to help you building better and better skins.
[i]BTW, are we going to see a glassed version of Vitreous? (Hint, hint...)[/i]