Experimental Theme Mockup

There are complaints about Ubuntu’s theming again and again. While I don’t think the default in Feisty is horrible, I don’t think it’s good, either. Colour perspective is an important reason for the prevalence of blue backgrounds. Orange jumps to the front, making Ubuntu look “full” and even “loud”.

So I played with warm but rather subtle tones, textures and various ideas in the details.

The shadows are not the same size for every window, but stepped according to z-order for a stronger sense of depth. This means the top window casts a larger shadow on the desktop.

Making no distinction between title and menu / tool bar means that any empty space there should act like the title bar does now. This is the reason why I clearly show the menu are on the browser window.

The size column of the browser has bars representing file size, where the full width is mapped to the largest file. With a very large file and several much smaller files, the only info this would provide is the distinction large / small, but even then it might be useful. It should work best in folders filled with similar files, like image or music collections.

Regarding some other details, please see:
HD Icons
List View Columns
Scrollbars with Popups
Options (check boxes and radio buttons)

Click on the thumbnails for full size images (1280 x 1024)

The Feisty screenshot this is based on:

The only changes from the defaults that affect the visuals were turning on “Desktop Effects” and adding workspaces, I think.

EDIT: Since this still gets many hits, I would like to point to more recent work
Experimental Theme Mockup 5

Ardour Latency Dialog

Paul Davis asked me for advice on the Latency dialog he is implementing. This is the state of things:

The underlying logic above is to go from minus to plus and from large to small and back to large. With “Use natural latency” in the neutral center. The result looks rather chaotic

“Use natural Latency” -> Automatic. Under the assumption this is the default, I put it on the left as the thing to start from. It should be a toggle button to inform the user if it is on or not (clicking the other buttons should disable it) . Adding the value it will result in as part of the label in parenthesis or as tooltip would be good, but I’ve been told that value is not readily available.

Using 2 rows allows to split step size and direction. Same size buttons avoid an overly busy layout.

If custom widgets are an option.

Note that I treated this mainly on the layout level and did not put to question the elements, as I currently do not have much insight into the underlying needs. So I just trust Paul here

Save Changes Integrated 3

Previously:
Save Changes Integrated 1
Save Changes Integrated 2

Due to the various concerns that have been raised, here’s another approach, targeted at the WM alone.

I also played a bit with WM button styles and suddenly had the idea of using a colour change on the close button instead of a * in the document window title to indicate unsaved changes. But as that doesn’t show up in task bar items, perhaps both should be used.

The warning colour of the button could extent to the titlebar that serves for both document window and dialog. The window title changes to that of the dialog, as that makes more sense in the task bar, I think.

The dialog is meant to be a movable relative to the document window , just in case the user wants a free view on the canvas, but is placed so as to emphasize the connection. It’s taken right from GIMP; the wording, icon and button labels shall be of no concern, here.

(Click to enlarge)