FreeLists / openbeos / [openbeos] Re: Visual Design for R1?

["Simon Taylor" <simontaylor1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> 
> >eg: To create an acceptable graduated shadow (although obviously  
> > horribly 
> >inefficient) for the BScrollView B_FANCY_BORDER or whatever:
> [cut]
> 
> The problem is:
> Can we all agree on a given design, different from the R5 one?
> No.
> I don't like the supplied screenshots, for example.
> So, as we (not me) already decided much time ago (at least, IIRC), 
> OBOS R1 will look as BeOS R5.

It won't look completely as R5 - icons etc will need changing for 
copyright reasons - it will look like a weird hybrid between modern 
icons and old interface.

I'm sure not everyone at Microsoft liked Aqua (and who could blame them 
;)) - but that didn't stop them changing it. Love it or hate it - you 
can't deny it's different - and it helps users to see it as a "new" OS.

I'm sure a "new" look would create more interest and excitiment around 
all things BeOS again, which as I've said before can only be good for 
the future of OBOS.

And so we can't all agree on a new design - does it therefore make 
sense to keep the old one? If you did a survey and asked people to 
choose "new design x" or "R5" - and x got 90% of the vote, would you 
still stick with R5 because "we can't all agree on a new design"?

I say again, user reaction to the release of R1 is a crucial. At the 
moment, people would say "it's taken years, and it's the same as R5". 
People really are that fickle to judge your project based on it's 
appearance - change that, and you change the whole perception of the OS 
"Oh, I thought they were just making an exact copy of R5, but it looks 
like they've come up with a whole new OS - cool, I'll try it out".

> Moreover, isn't just a matter of changing a few lines. Yeah, for the 
> scrollbars, maybe, but have a look at some more advanced controls... 
you need to change the drawing mode for all the states of those 
controls, and you need to have a consistent look.

OK then - if someone from the CDT team gives me an exact look for the 
controls - I'll write the code.
 
> So, my opinion (which probably doesn't count so much) is: let's stick 
> to the R5 visual design and let's get this thing done.
Your opinion certainly counts more than mine!

my opinion: you guys concentrate on "getting the thing done" - let CDT 
design the whole OS while they're doing icons, backgrounds, logos, etc 
- lets make it all consistant - give me the exact mockups and let me 
alter the drawing code for the controls.

Simon