I think that we all have plenty of time to come up with some kickass themes for OS4.

In fact I would love to see some boingball sidebars with the trademark checkered white and red. Otherwise the Amiga A logo with the rainbow colors would work wonders as a start button (even better if its an animated gif when its highlighted!

Transluscent dialog boxes also are a must as shown on this theme by the talented Mr StarFire

Quote:

The claim that the design is cluttered is moreover completely baseless. It is certainly not more cluttered than say Windows XP or Mac OSX, which I both use on a daily basis.

For the real purpose of screenshots in general, it has to be cluttered to show as much as possible in images .

For clustered preferences, I've seen an option in MacOSX where advanced settings slide down extending the height of the dialog box after clicking a small button on the window titlebar.

Quote:

Please remember that OS 4 is also intended to run on BlizzardPPC cards which start at 160 Mhz. Now compare that to your run of the mill Windows XP Box.

I think in order for 2 systems to be compared, they should be on the same level and have similar environment.
XP and AOS can't be compared for the simple reason that they don't have equally number of features and functionalities

Quote:

I have to point out that as a rule these people are completely clueless about UI design which is a very challenging discipline. Enormous amounts of books have been written about it and I do venture to say that your run of the mill graphician or webmaster will be blissfully unaware of them. Our design was vetted by three people with expertise in the field of UI design (not graphicians as such).

We are aware but No one is perfect.

Also some "graphicians" might have a Master in CS or such but also have the gift of doing artistic work in several other areas, "graphics design" being one of them.

Yo SimoAmi!

I Pmed you at Amiga.org!

Love your work man! I'm really interested in getting some themes of my own going! Get back to me soon man.

Chau!

Hi there Hyperion.

You know, when you are into DTP & gfx & design for several years, you can notice things some other ppl don't. Something like bad layout, fonts and colours. That's why designer is designer and programmer is programmer. For example, I can't tell you how well OS4 is programmed until I try it but from the first snapshots I can only notice colours and gfx in OS4 does not match well and OS overall does not look professional [sory but no offences].

As long Amiga user [that uses Amiga in DTP], I care about the platform and the only way I can help OS raise from ashes is to suggest better design!

In a business world, good design is the main point that sells goods, don't forget that!

I'm very happy AmigaOS4 could finally have skinnable GUI because gray "colour" is abandoned long time ago. When you make new product you'll have to make it better than others in order to success! At least if it can't beat other OSes with features, ok, lets make it LOOK better! With current skinnable GUI in AmigaOS4, you can chose [or make] at least 5 times better skins than we see it in AmigaOS on tour machines! Just hire good designers and they will make it for you. Don't chose anyone because anyone isn't good as good and experienced artist!

I'm sorry to say but ~90% Amiga users in Amiga world does not care about OS4 design, they just want ANY new AmigaOS appear whatever it will look like! And when OS4 is finished, you will sell it to just those several hundred Amiga fanatics and not anywhere else in serious world! I know how it works because I'm into gfx several years and I'm just suggesting you to listen what other ppl from gfx world can suggest you.

If I'd be AmigaINC or Hyperion, I'd hire good artists like SimoAMI because I think he is the only one remaining that really cares the AmigaOS and its look [of course there are few others I forgot to mention, sorry].

I've seen all SimoAMI's artwork about AmigaOS in past and they look really beautiful! He knows the business and I'm suggesting you to hire him to do some skins for OS4 and make it DEFAULT look. Forget gray, forget old and outdated programs. Make it look new, bright and OS4 will prosper, believe me!

If you have time, you can check how good artists can draw some great looking backgrounds [that are even better from those I saw in MorphOS]. Here is URL:

http://www.mindnever.org

and go to

http://art.mindnever.org

http://lucid.mindnever.org

to check rudy's amazing wallpapers he did in 3DStudio & Photoshop.

As he is from here [Serbia], I can contact him and ask to do some wallpapers for AOS4 [he is on serbian amiga mailing list, so why not?]

I'll also do some backgrounds for AmigaOS, but I'm extremly busy doing various multimedia projects. When I find some more free time, I'll do few Photoshop drawings in 1024x768 to share some ideas with you.

Anyway you already did amazing job! Keep up with it and lets just make it looking good :)

regards,
djnick [www.djnick.org]

_________________
nykk | deetronic.rs | youtube.com/djnykk | gfx.river | mamavolibebu.com

Quote:

Sure, the design is conservative in the sense that it values functionality and sound UI design over fancy bells & whistles which slows your machine to a crawl and which eats up memory like there is no tomorrow. I note once again that commments like "boring, dull and depressing" are very subjective. They also do not relate to the functionality but only concern appearance.

well, as the default theme looks amiga-like, one cant say it misses the audience by much.
most Amigausers might just change the wallpaper, a pattern or the fonts and fell home instantly.

of course the functionallity is why im still with amigaos ;)
its the small quirks wich get on my nerves in say windows or linux, like tiny filerequesters, blocking windows, lots of programms that have different keys for same actions, etc.

in terms of sound response for useractions, i do wonder who was responisble for that terrible space theme of this old windows plus package.
the strange thing is there are ppl who love it;)

@ z5 : yeah, i give it a try once the new os is in my hands :)
but aware it will be just my "style" and im not much professional ;)

Quote:

z5 wrote: The default OS4 gui, as has been shown on the first OS4 on tour (not finished) is horrible (old, dull, boring, depressive,...).

I have shown this to a few of my work colleges and they like it. I admit that I am not to keen on the background grey metal, but that is all down to taste. One of my mates likes it as it is, others like it but want it in different colour/textures. It is all down to that one thing. Taste.

_________________

It's great to see some really good graphic professionals participating here.

What we need is one of you to have access to the AmigaOS4 beta and possibly discuss with Massimo on what the GUI customization possibilities currently are. He or she can then co-ordinate efforts to set up a theme directory with textures, backdrops, glyph sets, mock-ups and the actual resulting screenshots as implemented by this graphics artist. I personally would prefer SimoAmi to lead this effort, but as I understand it he has alot of other work to do as well.

We need to keep in mind the possibilities of the current AmigaOS4 GUI. We can of course gather and share ideas on future GUI improvements as well and maybe create a special area for this here at AmigaWorld.

I would very much like to be some kind of administrator/advisor of this. I may look like a newcomer here (number of posts) but I've been following Amiga from the day I saw my the A1000 for the first time and owning 5 or 6 different Amiga through the years.

The thing that have intrigued me the most about the Amiga is in fact the user interface.

I think my combination of knowledge (functionality with design/design with functionality) suit me for this.

I think every GUI idea (graphical or written desc) is worth saving in a database for rating and discussion but it must be divided up into smaller manageable parts than just going wild with full screen mockups containing 40+ changes each to the interface.

For any of the submissions to be successfully accepted and implemented by Hyperion or anyone else they need to be consistent and well documented and in the end compatible to each other.

There is a slight risk though that if someone comes up with a brilliant idea and it is publicly available stuff can be taken by anyone including other OS makers.

Password protected or completely public is one of the first questions that arise.

Quote:

I'm sorry to say but ~90% Amiga users in Amiga world does not care about OS4 design, they just want ANY new AmigaOS appear whatever it will look like! And when OS4 is finished, you will sell it to just those several hundred Amiga fanatics and not anywhere else in serious world! I know how it works because I'm into gfx several years and I'm just suggesting you to listen what other ppl from gfx world can suggest you.

That was actually the point i was trying to get across.

Theme ideas I like so far:

1. Workbench 1.3 theme gadgets, requesters and window borders.

2. Simonami's Gnome theme.

I however think Hyperion and the intuition team is going the right way.

Anti-aliased fonts is a real gift. I would love the author behind "FreeType" implementation to add real Drop shadows (with a filter mode- normal or multiply) as an additional feature in the font library this would be a big plus!

Additionally, what if Intuition could have plugin system so that additional features could be added without affecting the original code!

Glad to see DJNick and TeoTwin here too :)

I would definitely like to contribute in improving the intuition features! not just "gfx"

@ horizone

You can sent me your GUI or Graphics related credentials. I would like someone experienced and who is able to implement/test looks with the AmigaOS4 beta to co-ordinate these efforts.

I would also prefer all efforts to be public knowledge to allow anyone to advise and speak their minds on the themes and other ideas.

Good looks is very much in the eye of the beholder, so hopefully we could design alternative themes which will suit the desire of almost anyone within the Amiga community.

I'm not so sure. GUI design is important. You never get another chance to make an impression on a customer, and the first thing he sees is the way the desktop/Workbench looks.

Amiga Inc. could improve the look of the GUI as it currently is by simply adding white to text fields and other gadgets. One of the principle elements of design is *contrast*. If you have too little, the design looks "muddy," which is currently the problem with the Amiga GUI.

Well, Let's make things easier!

With a little effort we could easily achieve a more satisfying look:



Instead of this:

Now that is EXACTLY how it should look....

...its quite amusing....I was just reading though this topic as I was about to say:

"1) text boxes in the os4 screenshots lack contrast, we should have black on white

High contrast is good and any UI designer worth his/her salt would know this. No offence indended hyperion people but who exactly were this UI designers?

2) Text should have contrasting outlines on low contrast backgrounds eg mid grey brushed metal.

It makes it easier to read. ps this also goes for icon text - please say this'll appear in 4.1 aswell as shadows."

And low and behold along comes SimoAmi and mocks up exactly the look I was thinking about!

asside from the resize gad through I would have kept it placed ontop of the background rather than a recessed edge look - is more consistent with the other gadgets...but that is just personal taste :)

Hyperion I would seriously advise you to point your graphic designer towards the above mockup.

screw old apps looking ...well old.....old apps from win 3.11 look old and crap on win2000! No need to make new apps by default look that way.

I still think you've done great work...however SimoAmi has just visably demonstrated how much better it could be implimented.

The most significant difference: contrast

CnlPepper - Wondering how SimoAmi makes these mockups so damn quick....

>Looks at SimoAmi's latest mockup screen :drool:
See! that dudes got skillz yo!

Thats what I'm talkin bout baby!

If it were upto me and money was an issue with Hyperion, I would gladly offer any available funds I may have ($10,000?) Only for the chance on bringing aboard SimoAmi and his desktop concepts as a preconfigured themes option for OS4.

It would work by being a user option in the display properties for OS4. The user would just select to go with SimoAmi's themes or just stick with the Hyperion default one. Simple as that. But ultimately Amigans are just asking for something really fundamental... CHOICE.

So what do you guys think?

@SimoAmi

Splendid

Much nicer brushed metal used.

The buttons & fonts are great & white used in te right places to blance it all out.

And it still looks like AmigaOS

_________________
PowerTower A1200, 060/80Mhz, Heatsink & Fan, 66MBRam, PowerFlyerGold, 50xCDRomdrive, 250Zip, 2.1

DAMN!

What a difference! You reading this, Ben? that still looks like Intuition 3 (grey and everything), but it's a *lot* more polished! I agree, it's the use of contrast that really does it.

[Minor niggle - I think it would look a bit more Intuition-ish if you put back the little vertical bars in the titlebar, that separate the titlebar gadgets from the window caption. You also need them to inform the user where the borders of the size and depth gadgets are - Fitt's law says big icons are good, and those look small!]

If anyone wants to set up a SimoAmi for GuiGuy paypal fund, I'll gladly chip in!

@ SimoAmi

A very well-done makeover. And a re-affirmation for me that you would be very well suited for leading any collective efforts.

I do believe the new colors would break the consistent look with older applications a bit, but this is certainly a great alternative theme and IMO a potential candidate for future default GUI designs.