Few ideas, if anyone feels bored enough... :)

from WinCustomize Forums
Hiya,
I've grown tired of the general windows-look, And I'm in the process of making it (my desktop) look cleaner and nicer. Here's a couple of ideas that got into my head:

1. Upsidedown (don't know if WB can do it)
turn the window-layout upside down.
Like, the Titlebar would be at the bottom
of the window, with the system menu at
lower-left corner, and the close/min/max/
rollup/sendback buttons at the lower-right.
Don't know if this would be any good, but
at least it would be different

2. Very minimal.
whole GUI would consist of a small (not
screen-wide) traybar at the lower-left
corner, Date/Time text at upper-right
(preferably not a bar, just the text, if
possible somehow) and a small bar (with
icons only) at the upper-right corner,
including such as System, Programs and a
couple of configurable entries. And
everything with a clean skin, preferably
something like the "Summer" and "Spring"
look (by eYz). This is what I'm going to
try to achieved, this way, or another.
If anyone is interested, I'll try to make
a "fake-screenshot" of what I'm after.

3. And finally, there's this one idea I
originally introduced over a year ago at
skinz.org forums. The HUD. To make every
item in the UI a (almost) single-color and
transparent (color being preferable a
shade of blue or green, tho there is now
law... but think about pink HUD It
would be great to have the system auto-fade
the non-focused windows to about 90%
transparent, and the currently focused
window to something like 50 to 75%.

but, mail me at nite@iki.fi, if you're interested, I'll try to help anyway I can, but I'm not so good at skinning (yet, anyways)

-Nite
3,214 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
/me remembers starting a hud look theme in DesktopX. Was that you who suggested it at skinz.org? That green hud idea was what inspired Minimalism 2000. Not green but could have been. Not sure if I still have the images or not for the original one as I think my hard disk died after starting it.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
yap. I think it was me. The Green HUD project had a similiar destiny by my windows' install-frenzy... :/
Object Desktop - Get all of our enhancement utilities in one suite
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Nite...I've been running my Min/max etc. buttons on top left...just because WB can let you...and to be 'different'....you get used to it...but I'd imagine bottom left would be a tad more 'odd'...
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Jafo, yup "odd" might just be the perfect word for that but, MIGHT be even usable. After 900 years of getting-used-to...

but, for the simple-things, I've done a picture of what I mean, it can be found at

http://www.sunpoint.net/~nite/SOE-ss1.jpg
(800x600, about 75k)

time taken about 10-15min, so excuse me for the no-so-professional graphics

-Nite
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
...and after while of intesive swearing, I thought that a "StayOnTop" button on either side would be a good idea...



-Nite
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I made a skin with the title bar and the buttons on the bottom, it's called Doreen's TV. It's pretty old now and doesn't have all the new stuff skinned, and it's a real dark skin. I've often felt that it would be nice to put an extra close button on the bottom right but that's where I like to have the lock on top button, and I have this fear that I would be constantly accidently closing the program I'm working in.

You get used to a certain layout and then if you change it, it takes a while to get used to. I usually put the basic control buttons in the standard place (top right) for that reason. Plus, if the buttons aren't clearly labled, it's still easy for most people to use the skin if they can assume those three buttons are min, max and close.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
DavidK:
>Plus, if the buttons aren't clearly labled,
>it's still easy for most people to use the
>skin if they can assume those three buttons
>are min, max and close.

I could'nt agree more, there are skins out there that have buttons all over the design without any indication of what they do. But if the buttons were simple and clear, they could be placed almost anywhere. (I've noticed a fact that more often than not, my mouse is in the lower parts of the screen, which might make sense to the bottom-titlebar -design.)

but agreed, let the buttons be where they should, at least that way it's more intuitive to use without a 2-week training.

but, from one thing to another, there's another "screenshot" up at http://www.sunpoint.net/~nite/SOE-ss2.jpg which has two slightly different "windows" shown. I still couldn't do nice enought "mouseover" images on the buttons, so they're still blank. but if someone is interested in this, tell me, should the buttons have the black-blue-black border or just the blue?

-Nite

"Back to the old drawing-board."
-Wile E. Coyote
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The only necessity with using 'odd' button placements in WB is that you ideally need to persist with the one skin so it becomes second-nature to use. Swapping frequently between 'normal' and 'odd' skins can be a bit 'confusing' and impractical...