[Blog] MP Skin Design - The Evolution (1 Viewer)

[JDWestoby]

It was interesting but one of the reasons I like MediaPortal is that the skins can be simple.

Maybe I'm "out there" but I use Windows in classic theme, no animations, no backgrounds, square windows etc. When I'm doing things I'd rather the machine was doing what I want, not just showing off.

(I had Nebula cards, which were great but the interface was impressed with showing off - made it hard to find things too!)

I like simple buttons (that look like buttons), with easy to read/understand info.

Usability is all for me. One of the reasons I hate Macs (the ones I'bve seen up close anyway) is that the animations get in my way. (Scrolling along the active tasks changes the size, it is very distracting).

In a way I'd like to spend time simplifying the interface even more than it is (using Blue wide), pushing left brings up angled dual windows - why? I wanted the left hand one and I don't want
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o

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things at an angle (see what I mean?).

Interface design is really hard and I fully appreciate you'll never please all the people so having the choice is important.

Frankly anyone doing this work is poking their head above the wall - and I don't envy them at all :sorry:

Even Microsoft get it wrong, their ribbon interface is awful. I don't know how partially sighted people are meant to use it.

Don't take this as a negative comment, it isn't. The work done is outstanding and being user changealble is a huge task. Everyone working on MediaPortal does an incredible job - shame they don't get paid for it!

 

[Dadeo]

Thank you very much for that post JD. I think you explained very clearly one of the basic principles of the Blue3 skin design. The Community Skins are there for all the bells and whistles for those you like them, but the default skin should run well on even the most basic PCs, which many users use as clients.

Do you mind if I quote you on our new HomePages? I really like your statement

I like simple buttons (that look like buttons), with easy to read/understand info.

Or if you would like to write me a nice single line quote about Blue3 that would be great.

It's nice to hear someone else who does not think Microsoft got it right. I have read so many reviews raving about the UI of 7MC, but I just don't get it. When I tried it a few weeks ago I thought it was terrible - unintuitive, awkward, and way too busy as well.

As many MP users have pointed out, the great thing about Blue3 is that even your kids can learn and use it easily.

 

[JDWestoby]

Frankly I'm just pleased it wasn't misconstrued as negative (always a problem when writing ANYTHING down) - no way was it meant to be.

Please feel free to quote the post, no problems there.

As I said it is a horrible task to make something to appeal to everyone, I don't have low hardware (I think I once saw it hit 50%) but just don't want the interface to 'get in my way'.

I'm sure everyone has seen websites that hide buttons so you're looking for the logout (who said Amazon?) or whatever and can't find it!

I think the problem is the same as all software - creep. Having designed something nice and 'tight' someone looks at it and says "can it just do xxx?", well, of course it can - it's software and having the courage/hubris to turn round and say NO outright is really hard to do.

So thank you a) for all the hard work b) for not taking offense c) for making MP a nice place to visit.

(Oh where the heck is MP 1 )

 

[Cetra]

Ooh MP2 skinning will be xaml based? Does this mean we're going to see Direct2D acceleration support?!

 

[Dadeo]

Hi Cetra - I am already working on a series of Blog Interviews with Albert about MP2 - one of which is all about Skin Design. So I will add your question! Thanks.

 

[tourettes]

Ooh MP2 skinning will be xaml based? Does this mean we're going to see Direct2D acceleration support?!

No, but it wont matter since DirectX provides the same acceleration support (and much more). DirectWrite would be much more interesting (using it as a replacement for the MP2 current font engine implementation).

 

[Cetra]

Ooh MP2 skinning will be xaml based? Does this mean we're going to see Direct2D acceleration support?!

No, but it wont matter since DirectX provides the same acceleration support (and much more). DirectWrite would be much more interesting (using it as a replacement for the MP2 current font engine implementation).

Well Direct 2D is part of DirectX. It's a alternative to GDI/GDI+. If I recall correctly, it was specifically built with WMC7 in mind so it might not be a bad option to look into with MP2. But I guess maybe MP2 is just going to use all 3D surfaces and no vectoring?