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Interesting Windows Desktop UI Concept
- remmers 15y agoI really enjoy the lack of rounded corners. It's very crisp. I've been annoyed that older browsers don't support CSS rounded corners, but now I realize I can do without.
- kamechan 15y agoreminds me of the current google design paradigms. wish the creator would make this into a gnome3 theme (and possibly a dark version)? i would totally use it.
- Shank 15y agoI'd be happy with a theme for that as well. Even some Windows theme fiddling could get that to work.
- tikhonj 15y agoYeah, it would be really nice to see some Linux themes inspired more by the core ideas of Metro and less by Apple's software design (which I find lacking). Also, I can't help thinking that this sort of design is very good for tiling window managers :).
- lbotos 15y agoHow hard is it to theme "linux"(KDE/GNOME/ETC)? I've never done it as I don't use the Linux Desktop (I need Photoshop) but I've always wanted to try and help improve the linux desktop experience. Is anyone working on a theme actively or know someone to put me in touch with?
- pbhjpbhj 15y agoKDE-look.org might be a good place to start, http://kde-look.org/index.php?xsortmode=high&page=0&xcontentmode=9 http://kde-look.org/index.php?xsortmode=high&page=0&..., if for nothing else then it can put you in touch with current theme designers.
- rbanffy 15y agoYou can also check the GTK theming tutorial (for Gnome 2 and 3): http://live.gnome.org/GnomeArt/Tutorials/GtkThemes http://live.gnome.org/GnomeArt/Tutorials/GtkThemes or get in touch with the design team at Canonical: http://design.canonical.com/ http://design.canonical.com/
- rbanffy 15y agoI'm not sure it would work well with tiling windows. Tiled UIs must adapt to very different window sizes and, probably, switch layouts accordingly.
- nagisa 15y agoThere's a similar theme already called Elegant_brit. It doesn't look exactly same, but there's resemblance. Also in this concept window manager takes really much screen estate. Even tough it looks great while looking at non-maximized windows, it would start itching really quick when working in day-to-day basis. Also I wonder how concept author would replace lost functionality of menu bar... Finally, what bugs me most is that scroll bars are a rip-off from Ubuntu-like scroll bars. (I don't say that Ubuntu didn't ripped them off tho.)
- Shank 15y agoThat's really a great re-design concept. It looks really good without lacking functionality--I'd love to use that over Metro any day (especially after having used it in Windows 8 developer preview).
- joering2 15y agoits interesting to see how we going back to basics. from windows 3.11 where there was like 256 colors through windows 95/XP more blurry, shadows, rounded stuff, through new windows design that just look "cleaner" and uses better matched color palette, but not much different from initials.
- lbotos 15y agoThe funny thing is we do this everywhere. The most important thing I learned durning my time at art school was that the art world (And the world by extension) moves in cycles. Everything is a reaction to what was prior.
- v0cab 15y agoI've said for several years that Windows should abandon the 3D-style UI elements, and stop overwhelming users with color. Imagine if you went to a website, and all the UI elements were pseudo-3D. It would look a mess.
- sek 15y agoIs there any good resource to learn how to use colors in design, the stuff i make always looks like crap because i only take standard ones. I envy this guy for this ability, incredible good taste in unobtrusive colors.
- th0ma5 15y agothere's a field of color theory, concepts like compliments, but then tertiary compliments, and several other forms. unobtrusive gets into an overlap of usability concerns, taste, colorblindness, and just overall theme. i'm sure if you just pay attention to a little more and google some you can find answers to what you're looking for. ubuntu has a nifty color theory utility called avage ... and there are sites like color lovers and such.
- sek 15y agoThe thing is, i look at this theme and i know it looks great, but i can't understand why! As an hacker really bugs me. I know this color tools, but what are the ingredients that makes something look good compared to another design? When i think the rounded colors are the reason, something like this comes up and proves me wrong. I am aware design is not a trivial matter (i work at IDEO), but where do i start?
- no-espam 15y agoTwo things that transcend trends. White space + good typography. Colors are an accent.
- lbotos 15y agoThere is an underlying grid. The typography has a consistent visual flow. The elements form the structure on the "page/screen" instead of creating containers to hold the elements. Not to sound pompous, but there is clarity. You may want to look into swiss design for influences. If you wanna talk to someone who went to art school with more specific questions, feel free to email me. My email is in my profile. :)
- rhengles 15y agoIMO, the taskbar is what caught my attention the most - the best use of a chromeless design that i've seen.
- no-espam 15y agoHmmm looks like Zune. I'll argue it's one the best pieces of software to come out of Microsoft. Too bad MS just killed.
- pilsetnieks 15y agoIt's not killed, it's called Windows Phone 7 now.
- Raphael 15y agoThere was a program called Zune for Windows desktop which was like Windows Media Player but with a radical UI.
- pilsetnieks 15y agoSomething similar will probably surface for Windows 8 Metro interface.
- shriphani 15y agoThere still is. It is the default way to sync Zune HDs and WP7 devices.
- mark_story 15y agoMuch of the zune visuals live on in the xbox and windows 8 as well. WhileMS had some terrible design in the past they seem to be entering a new phase where design is at the forefront.
- jakeonthemove 15y agoZune inspired - pretty damn good!
- pooriaazimi 15y agoThough I'm not a Windows user (and won't be in the foreseeable future), but I really liked it. This one was particularly nice and novel: http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/4174/explorer3.jpg http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/4174/explorer3.jpg
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- jeffchuber 15y agoAgree with other's comments. Looks a ton like new Google. And why all the backlash against structure? People like structure.
- dmix 15y agoGoogle is "wanting to move away from explicit box structures and to use type and spacing more to indicate structure." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGIU2JX1U5Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGIU2JX1U5Y
- Havoc 15y agoLooks like Windows with a thick layer of gmail paint.
- nchlswu 15y agoNot to take away from the work, but am I missing something? This strikes me as primarily being a visual design or what some people call a theme. This is a great visual design. It's cohesive and incorporates zune/metro very well. I particularly like how the focus window is highlighted and everything else fades a little. However, I think this redesign (and Metro itself) also highlights how minimalism isn't necessarily the best trend to follow - at least not to the extremes. I see a design that's somewhat flat and we may perceive differently if the background was a solid colour.
- spindritf 15y ago> am I missing something? This strikes me as primarily being a visual design or what some people call a theme. Looks like it's a little more than a theme, maybe a theme for a shell replacement? Like what desktop modders used to do with LiteStep* back in the day. Very attractive, I would add -- minimalistic, clean, perhaps a little soulless. I'd use it, though, as others commented, the lack of contrast might get a little taxing in the long run, hard to say. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiteStep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiteStep
- droctopu5 15y agoAgreed. I like this visually, but the title is misleading. I don't see a new "UI Concept" here.
- robszumski 15y agoI love visual design exercises like this, but it's one thing to throw it out there and a completely separate (10000x harder) feat to actually have this implemented. If you usability test this interface, it's going to fail all over the place. Remember, Windows is probably the only piece of software with EVERY SINGLE segment of users. http://cdn.robszumski.com/share/file-copy.png http://cdn.robszumski.com/share/file-copy.png The file copy window that's tacked on to the explorer window contains way too much information. A skilled but non-technical user is going to see "164 MB/s" and "72%". Where's the time left? You have to remember, people don't read -- at all, ever. "Hey user, how do you tell when this is done?" "Funny you mention that, I never have any idea. I know that the percent is there in the squiggly bar, but what does that mean? Each week my podcasts seem to take different amounts of time to copy, but I never really know." http://cdn.robszumski.com/share/copy-worst-case.png http://cdn.robszumski.com/share/copy-worst-case.png "Sometimes I can't even read the number because the line goes straight through it." Obviously this could be designed in a much better way, but when you look at these perfect screenshots it's impossible to see how it would act. This is where designers make their money for the company. There are a lot of people in the comments of the article saying the author should be hired by Microsoft. I don't think that's going to happen.
- pbhjpbhj 15y agoWelp, I don't like it. It's too, erm, "indistinct" [which itself is a pretty nondescript description!]. For MS I suspect they couldn't use this as a major theme because of lack of contrast. On a consistency POV, in http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/9029/desktopoy.jpg http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/9029/desktopoy.jpg, why does the [web] browser have a separated tab bar but the file manager doesn't? No tabbed file browsing? Why are the tabs in the skype window not coloured like those of the browser window? Aside: Which leads me on to wonder as cloud storage and web apps grow ever more the focus will we move back to the earlier concept behind IE [and Konqueror and the like] of browsing local and web-based content through a single interface. Couple of other questions on the UI - why is the top padding inconsistent, and so large (it's massive isn't it?!); where is the limit of the scrollbar and why don't the scrollbars start a consistent distance from the top of the window. I can see why it's loved by those being vocal about it; but it's not for me.
- Groxx 15y agoAnd Skype! half the width is devoted to the contacts list, cramming the actual conversation into as much space as you get on your standard smart-phone. Do they really expect you to be devoting that much time to gazing longingly at your list of contacts, instead of communicating?
- planckscnst 15y agoThis reminds me of one of my favorite GTK themes: Elegant Brit (http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/?content=74553 http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/?content=74553).
- joenathan 15y agoIt's all just a play on the Zune desktop software. http://i.minus.com/iDQRFmra9Ayqs.PNG http://i.minus.com/iDQRFmra9Ayqs.PNG
- 51Cards 15y agoVisually it looks nice but practically I don't think it works for a lot of users. I would guess that with all the white-space and over-sized elements you're only getting maybe 50% of the same content on a screen layout. What this would be good for say is to throw Windows into a "Streamlined" mode. Set basic users set this interface and then use the stock UI for advanced users.
- shimon_e 15y agoThere are some good UI ideas. Wish the Linux desktop designers would implement some of them.
- pbreit 15y agoSince this will never make its way onto Windows, maybe some Linux distro or UI manager could pick it up? Is this more than the typical skinning/theming capabilities can support? I also always wished the BeOS UI was more available now than just the Haiku project.
- rbanffy 15y agoOh no... I hate the small tabs on top of Windows. By making them variable size, you always had to hunt the functions on the right part of the tab. But I agree it was beautiful. Back then I made a BeOS theme for my Windows NT 4 box.
- neilparikh 15y agoA lot of these look like the Basecamp Next UI (ex. the colors, the rectangles and squares etc.). I especially liked the Skype UI. Anyway, well done!
- zobzu 15y agoThis reminds me of one of the E17 themes. Cause yeah, on free software, you can actually make your mockup a reality :-)
- richardlblair 15y agoI would say it's more zune/wp7 inspired than gmail inspired. Both are minimalistic, but the icons, colors, shapes and white space feels very much like zune/wp7.
- tar 15y agoI just wish this actually gets implemented.
- jaequery 15y agoif ubuntu had this, game over MS/Apple!
- kalyan02 15y agoSeems to be heavily inspired from Gmail and all the latest Google's new design hoopla! Awesome nevertheless!
- DanBC 15y agoI look at the Explorer window... (http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/5892/explorer1o.jpg http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/5892/explorer1o.jpg) ...and I see that the columns are titled: 120 items,detail view date type So you can sort by date, or type, but not name? And you can't adjust the column width? I gave up then.
- ksec 15y agoWell at least it is some great idea to look into. Although M$ has a habit of copying other people's idea and make it WORST. Another day to go before Windows 8 CP.