Experimental Theme Mockup 5

Got tired of the wallpaper image and tried something fairly neutral with some subtle variations. Still some rough spots.

1280 x 1024 pixel

The idea behind the new tabs is unification with command buttons: the areas to click on look just like buttons and are raised, not behind the current page. You may think of the buttons of old tape decks.

The one minimized window is shown like a playing card, clearly setting it apart from the panel items for visible windows.

HD icons use one colour per physical drive. Each partition is shown as  circle slice, indicating offset and relative size. This way no 2 partitions have the same icon. Disk use is given by colour, from blue for empty over green and yellow to red for full.

Feisty screenshot the whole series is based on:

1280 x 1024 pixel

Previously:
Experimental Theme Mockup 4
Experimental Theme Mockup 3
Experimental Theme Mockup 2
Experimental Theme Mockup 1

Related:
HD Icons
List View Columns
Scrollbars with Popups
Options (check boxes and radio buttons)

Experimental Theme Mockup 4

Going for less contrast, based on the feedback I got. Turned off all transparency to have full control over colours.

Empty desktop, 1280 x 1024

The usual 3 windows, 1280 x 1024

The original of the CC Attribution 2.0 licensed background picture is from kevinzim on flickr.

Previously:
Experimental Theme Mockup 3
Experimental Theme Mockup 2
Experimental Theme Mockup 1

Related:
HD Icons
List View Columns
Scrollbars with Popups
Options (check boxes and radio buttons)

Experimental Theme Mockup 3

Continuing with my experiments, I couldn’t stand the File Browser layout anymore and left the realm of pure theming

Allowing menu and tool bar to share a row saves quite some space. I removed the Up and Reload icons, as the first can be done via path buttons and the other shouldn’t be necessary in a file browser. Stop is also gone, but if loading takes a while, a throbber could appear on the status bar with a clickable stop symbol in the middle. With Firefox, I sometimes accidentally trigger the back menu instead of the back button. To avoid that, I removed the menu triangles and added a foot steps icon for a history menu. Alternatively it could be a written-out menu item after Bookmarks. Instead of zoom icons and a % label, there are directly accessible zoom levels: 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, 400 %, the same steps as now, in true relative size. A combo box for only 2 view modes is rather silly, so here we have 2 icons for icon and list view instead. Finally directly accessible search. Incremental would be nice, but if not, the magnifying glass icon can serve as enter button.

I changed the icon on the Close buttons, as the button-on-a-button effect the current one result in is … odd.

Mockup A, 1280 x 1024

Different tabs and path buttons:

Mockup A, 1280 x 1024

The original of the CC Attribution 2.0 licensed background picture is from kevinzim on flickr.

The tab pages would be a candidate for transition effects, for those who like that sort of thing: fade, new tab moving in from above or sliding like all pages where in a row.
I’m using focus-follows-mouse and wondered if it could be applied to tabs. Instead of actual switching on hover (might show to be annoying), it could be more like a preview until a click occurs or the pointer is moved elsewhere. Meanwhile the tab header could pulsate.

Previously:
Experimental Theme Mockup 2
Experimental Theme Mockup 1

Related:
HD Icons
List View Columns
Scrollbars with Popups
Options (check boxes and radio buttons)