[mockups] Project Paperclip [56kavoid]

Published by: rose 2009-01-09

So after years of idly critiscising everyone elses work I thought it was finally time I throw down and do a skin of my own. I'm hoping I've picked a look thats distinctive and that I can bring some usability features to the table.

to that end here are my very first mockups of how I want the skin to look.

http://www.mawman.co.uk/images/xbmc/forumpost1/papercliphome.jpg

http://www.mawman.co.uk/images/xbmc/forumpost1/paperclipvideo.jpg

http://www.mawman.co.uk/images/xbmc/forumpost1/paperclipvideomenu.jpg

so, any and all feedback, critiscism, rants, raves, I want it all :laugh:

no ETA and please dont beg me for one, I have to do this very meticulously it's just my way.

http://www.mawman.co.uk/images/xbmc/forumpost2/papercliphome.jpg

your right thats definitly easier to read.

looks awesome dude! i like it a lot :D

Well, one thing to take into consideration is lang... unless your hardcoding it english. I mydrlf know less than nothing about skinning so I cant say if there is a setting that would allow the text vertical instead of horizontal. If there was however and you used a language variable then the text would change with the lang option so <(variable)< would be displayed horizontally, be pointing to the side like you have outlined and the arrows are of course pointing to the left only thing would be length of text which would depend on the lang selection..... ok Im done rambling now

looks awsome good work man!!!!

its what u get for doing 3 years in college!!!!

yeah I'm just doing IT but my course has modules in user interface design, and according to those it actually is a bit like psychology heh.

You could put them along the top, but then it may look too much like Xephyr.

Alternatively something obvious to show that there's something that can pop out is certainly required, as well as a nicer look on the actual pop out (the black looks a bit off to me).

Obviously to be taken with a large grain of "He's a non-graphics guy" salt ;)

Cheers,
Jonathan

speaking of pretty, here's the Music screen and my first idea's for the pop-in side-menu.

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http://www.mawman.co.uk/images/xbmc/forumpost3/PaperclipMusic.jpg

http://www.mawman.co.uk/images/xbmc/forumpost3/PaperclipMusicSideMenu.jpg

you'll see here I'm doing a couple of new things, like the home button on the sidebar, i'm hoping to make it possible to navigate the whole skin with only one button, or at least the majority of the features. (well okay and directions too).

also I'm making the now playing information clickable, I'm thinking the default behavior for now will just take you to the fullscreen visualisation, but I'd also like to make it take you to the now playing media's information screen except I dont think thats possible right now, I need like a PlayingMedia.HasInfo conditional visability first.

anyway as before any comments at all are all valuable.

information technology, although it's a little more involved than just creating a skin, i have usability requirements for colour blind and partially sighted users, you guys are just getting the pretty version but I'll have high contrast and large font size versions too.

That wasnt meant to be insulting at all. I got my Assoc in electronic & Computer Engineering in 94. Was just a point of curiosity as a degree in psychology wouldnt be very helpful in skinning and as he brought it up I took it is it was an asset to his working on the skin.

your date is wrong it is not Aug 22nd

nice skin man :) I see your taking advantage of the 'show current path' option :) I had that in Vision but it just didn't fit so I took it out, but yours fits in with the skin very nicely

well this one's getting finished by christmas come hell or high water because it's my disertation for my degree.

Degree in what if I might ask?

No disrespect tword skinners... Ive seen several that look REALLY promising and are of interest, this included (I understand its a mach up) I just wish somebody would actually FINISH one instead of beta this or alpha that.

Nice I like
Don't get where the name paperclip comes from though

I'm still thinking about exactly how it'll be represented when its closed but I'm definitly not making an option to have it open all the time, the whole point of hiding it is to free up masses (and it really is acres) of screen realestate for what really matters, which is the content your browsing right now.

that said your right the ^view^ (thats literaly all it is is upwards chevrons+text right now) definitly needs rethinking, and possibly shrinking, I'm open to suggestions as to how that could look better anyways.

er, well, when i first started that background texture was meant to look like paper, and so I thought paperclip would be a cool name for the skin, but then the texture doesnt really look like paper so, fair point yeah it's just something random.

maybe papyrus or something would be a better names, I'm open to suggestions.

thanks affini I'll definitly experiment with moving the text, and I will certainly be using multi-images to provide multiple context sensitive images for the homescreen background, only I need to go out and take some photo's for this since what I'm using right now is actually windows vista wallpaper :rofl:

I like the idea but the homescreen needs work I think. It looks kind of like a mish mash of icons that don't go that well together. I think they need something to give them a more unified style... maybe putting a simple color diffuse over them would help?

Well, wonderful work so far... but the sliding option for the side menu... maybe if it was an option in settings to enable/disable. Not to crazy anbout the look when its closed (large "view" text on the side...)

nice!

Looks like a nice interface.

A few suggestions...

Place the text under the image, not over it for a cleaner interface
Use the multi-image feature to enable background changes per selection