Re: [Ayatana] [ubuntu-art] Chocolate Color Scheme

[Andrew SB]

> On Sunday 21 June 2009 15:17:46 Allan Caeg wrote:
>> Perfectska04 has a famous GNOME theme suite. Probably, a lot of you are
>> familiar to it and are using it. He has a set of icon themes, GDM
>> themes, and gtk themes that have different color schemes. His latest
>> color scheme is the "Dust" variant. This scheme's look and feel is based
>> on the color of chocolate. Prior to that, he always had a "Human"
>> variant, which is orange. The Dust variant feels more earthy and looks
>> much more elegant. For some reason, I am much more comfortable with the
>> chocolate feel. Maybe because orange really feels cheaper. It has always
>> been associated with low end products and services while a dark shade of
>> brown, in my opinion, reminds the user of chocolate and leather.

FYI, GNOME-Colors, Shiki-Colors, and Arc-Colors are all sitting in
Debian NEW right now and will be in Karmic. They were packaged by me
and Benjamin Drung. You can find a PPA and Bzr branches with the
packaging here:

https://edge.launchpad.net/~gnome-colors-packagers

- Andrew Starr-Bochicchio
  Ubuntu Developer

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Re: [Ayatana] Updates on Login

[Sohail Mirza]

Love the package icon, David.  :)

To jump into the fray, I'm not sure what the advantage is of forcing the
user to wait during the upgrade rather than processing the upgrade after
they've logged in.  Alex's original suggestion of having the user choose to
login and THEN update seems to make more sense.  But, please do share your
reasoning.

As an example of inappropriately forcing the user to wait for an update, I
recently subscribed to the Gnome Colors PPA.  For those who have done the
same, you'll notice that they update frequently (nearly every day).  That's
a fairly large and lengthy update process to be waiting for.

The only situation in which I think the user should be forced to wait is
perhaps when there is an update that requires a reboot.  Are we able to
identify these updates beforehand?  If so, then in this case the message
treatment on GDM could change as well, saying something along the lines of
"12 updates available.  Click to install and reboot".

Perhaps the best choice though is to never force the user to install.  Even
in the case where a reboot is required, leaving a reboot notification in the
notification tray sounds like the right thing to do.


On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 12:44 PM, David Siegel
wrote:

> Kind of kitchy, but puts a more positive spin on the updates. Your mockup
> makes it look like you must update immediately or risk certain death.
>
> David
>
> ajmctaggart wrote:
>
>> Ok, so clearly there are pros/cons to every update situation.  Perhaps
>> what I would like to see, as the user, is the option to have the ability to
>> be notified of an update when I want it, at startup or shutdown?  Looks like
>> a simple edition to the "Setting," menu of current Update Manager, as there
>> are already the option for Download, Notify only, etc.
>>
>> Perhaps this is what the gdm login screen would look like?  Obviously the
>> usability experts may have some ideas on placement, wording, etc...
>>
>> I just wanted to get a visual out there.  Obviously the discussion is
>> still on the table, and I am not too sure if it should really be ignored as
>> a viable option on user interaction with updates.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Anthony
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 8:46 AM, Vadim Peretokin 
>> > vpereto...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>When you turn on your computer, you are engaging with it,
>>signaling that you have time and attention to give to the machine.
>>
>>
>>Why do you think so? A computer can be turned on perform a task with
>>its help, not to maintenance on itself. Sometimes one wants to
>>google a map or something quickly before leaving would be an example.
>>
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Re: [Ayatana] Chocolate Color Scheme

[James Schriver]

On Sun, 2009-06-21 at 15:56 +0100, Shane Fagan wrote:
> Personally another earthy colour scheme isn't what im looking for. I
> like notify-osd I think its slick but at the moment its a little out of
> place with the desktop look. So in that way maybe making a darker theme
> to match might work well but not brown please not brown. Like a light
> grey might be nice IMO. 

Here is a theme I've been working on for a few months with Ubuntu
specifically kept in mind during the development.  It is rather dark,
but remains extremely easy on the eyes while maintaining a certain
shine.  I believe this has the originality and usability that could
benefit the Ubuntu Desktop.  

This theme was developed with the help and input from many members of
the artwork community. The color base is largely inspired by the GDM
that appeared in Jaunty.  After seeing those colors together, I realized
an accompanying theme would be aesthetically pleasing and not done by
many others.

I am hosting the project on Launchpad and have yet to create a Wiki on
Ubuntu-Artwork.  Any bugs, feedback, thoughts, input, would be greatly
appreciated. It's at 0.2 release, but actually much more stable than the
version would imply.

https://launchpad.net/hanso

http://www.ubuntu-pics.de/bild/16945/screenshot_003_EGqG4J.png

http://www.ubuntu-pics.de/bild/16946/screenshot_r3Xy2e.png

http://www.ubuntu-pics.de/bild/16947/screenshot1_LJqnDG.png

http://www.ubuntu-pics.de/bild/16948/screenshot2_tjS0xl.png

Along with the beauty and functionality of GNOME-Do and community effort
of the Breathe Icon Set, this could make for an exciting alternate
desktop.

Here is the theme download via Launchpad for testing.

http://launchpad.net/hanso/0.2/0.2/+download/Hanso.tar.gz



Thanks,

James




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Re: [Ayatana] Chocolate Color Scheme

[Charlie Kravetz]

On Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:56:23 +0100
Shane Fagan  wrote:

> Personally another earthy colour scheme isn't what im looking for. I
> like notify-osd I think its slick but at the moment its a little out
> of place with the desktop look. So in that way maybe making a darker
> theme to match might work well but not brown please not brown. Like a
> light grey might be nice IMO. 
> The gnome-colors thing sounds very interesting I think it should be
> looked into. It would solve the issues of themes and colour. It seems
> a little limited though it only has 6 different colours but it is a
> step in the right direction. The one thing we have to keep in mind
> that space on the cd is limited so anything we add will have to be
> fairly small. 
> 
> Regards 
> Shane_Fagan
> 
> On Sun, 2009-06-21 at 21:24 +0800, Allan Caeg wrote:
> > I forgot to mention. I am also suggesting adjusting the current
> > Human theme to something more "chocolate-ey" if including the
> > themes under discussion would not be possible. 
> > 
> > I failed to add the links to the project I was referring to. Sorry.
> > 
> > Here it is http://code.google.com/p/gnome-colors/
> > 
> > Shiki-Colors gtk
> > http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Shiki-Colors?content=86717
> > 
> > GNOME-Colors icon theme
> > http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/GNOME-colors?content=82562
> > 
> > 
> > On Sun, 2009-06-21 at 21:17 +0800, Allan Caeg wrote:
> > > Ubuntu always had an earthy color scheme, one with brown and
> > > orange. There have been a lot of discussions about this because
> > > many users have violent reactions. However, it is difficult to
> > > veer away from the color scheme because it defines Ubuntu very
> > > much and the rationale behind it is reasonable. 
> > > 
> > > Perfectska04 has a famous GNOME theme suite. Probably, a lot of
> > > you are familiar to it and are using it. He has a set of icon
> > > themes, GDM themes, and gtk themes that have different color
> > > schemes. His latest color scheme is the "Dust" variant. This
> > > scheme's look and feel is based on the color of chocolate. Prior
> > > to that, he always had a "Human" variant, which is orange. The
> > > Dust variant feels more earthy and looks much more elegant. For
> > > some reason, I am much more comfortable with the chocolate feel.
> > > Maybe because orange really feels cheaper. It has always been
> > > associated with low end products and services while a dark shade
> > > of brown, in my opinion, reminds the user of chocolate and
> > > leather. 
> > > 
> > > Shiki-Dust and GNOME-Dust fit the Ubuntu desktop very well
> > > because of the look and feel that they create. It is earthy like
> > > the Human theme, just more elegant, in my opinion. There may be
> > > some usability issues because of the dark elements of the theme
> > > but the only known bug due to its dark nature is a small color
> > > issue in Firefox which is fixed by adding a user style mentioned
> > > in
> > > http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Shiki-Colors?content=86717 . 
> > > 
> > > Jaunty included Dust and New Wave as alternative themes. I
> > > believe that Shiki is much more bug-free and elegant than most
> > > themes and it is in very active development. In fact, OpenSuSE
> > > 11.2's default theme (Sonar) is based on the green variant,
> > > GNOME-Wise, of the theme suite. I suggest at least including the
> > > Dust variant of GNOME-Colors to the future versions of Ubuntu as
> > > an alternative theme to Human, if not as a default. I understand
> > > that it has a little different set of principles from the Human
> > > icon theme as it includes application icons. This can easily be
> > > fixed by not including those icons, though. 
> > > 
> > > I am sending this to the Ubuntu Artwork Theme and Ayatana
> > > discussion because its an artwork issue that can be included in
> > > the 100 papercuts. 
> > > 
> > > Here is a link to the screenshot of my desktop with the GNOME-Dust
> > > theme. http://g.imagehost.org/view/0082/Screenshot
> > > 
> > > Best Regards 

While we are discussing these darker themes, could we *please* keep
accessibility in mind. Having visual impairments does not always mean
blind. Some of us can not read certain combinations. 

For example, with my eyes and impairments, I can not read white text
on black background without a lot of work. It just blurs, and takes
several minutes to distinguish the letters. Others can read white on
black. There are other colors just as bad. I can log in on the new GDM
screen, because I am very familiar with it and know that is what the
big white box wants. I type my name, hit enter, type my password, hit
enter, and wait. If it doesn't log in, I must have made a mistake. It
would be nice to know that because it said so, but I can not read white
on black. 

I can not read a blog or website that uses black background most of the
time. This is very much an accessibility item, I think. If not, it most
definitely is a usability, since I c

Re: [Ayatana] Chocolate Color Scheme

[Sohail Mirza]

James,

I love the smooth GTK colours.  Were you inspired by the old Firefox theme,
Charamel ?  :)

Someone should just make Charamel a GTK theme.  It would be the perfect
theme *drool*.


On Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 5:00 PM, James Schriver  wrote:

> On Sun, 2009-06-21 at 15:56 +0100, Shane Fagan wrote:
> > Personally another earthy colour scheme isn't what im looking for. I
> > like notify-osd I think its slick but at the moment its a little out of
> > place with the desktop look. So in that way maybe making a darker theme
> > to match might work well but not brown please not brown. Like a light
> > grey might be nice IMO.
>
> Here is a theme I've been working on for a few months with Ubuntu
> specifically kept in mind during the development.  It is rather dark,
> but remains extremely easy on the eyes while maintaining a certain
> shine.  I believe this has the originality and usability that could
> benefit the Ubuntu Desktop.
>
> This theme was developed with the help and input from many members of
> the artwork community. The color base is largely inspired by the GDM
> that appeared in Jaunty.  After seeing those colors together, I realized
> an accompanying theme would be aesthetically pleasing and not done by
> many others.
>
> I am hosting the project on Launchpad and have yet to create a Wiki on
> Ubuntu-Artwork.  Any bugs, feedback, thoughts, input, would be greatly
> appreciated. It's at 0.2 release, but actually much more stable than the
> version would imply.
>
> https://launchpad.net/hanso
>
> http://www.ubuntu-pics.de/bild/16945/screenshot_003_EGqG4J.png
>
> http://www.ubuntu-pics.de/bild/16946/screenshot_r3Xy2e.png
>
> http://www.ubuntu-pics.de/bild/16947/screenshot1_LJqnDG.png
>
> http://www.ubuntu-pics.de/bild/16948/screenshot2_tjS0xl.png
>
> Along with the beauty and functionality of GNOME-Do and community effort
> of the Breathe Icon Set, this could make for an exciting alternate
> desktop.
>
> Here is the theme download via Launchpad for testing.
>
> http://launchpad.net/hanso/0.2/0.2/+download/Hanso.tar.gz
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> James
>
>
>
>
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[Ayatana] Idea: for Ayatana to have oversight of highly visible projects.

[H S]

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Ayatana:  "Ayatana's goal is to build a set of well
researched and defined technologies to help extend, improve and refine the
Open Source desktop"

Shouldn't that mean that Ayatana should have some oversight, or at least, be
made aware of, certain highly visible projects?

For example, the slideshow that will show during the Ubiquity install for
Karmic (https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/ubiquity-slideshow) will
be the first impression that many new users will have of Ubuntu.  Shouldn't
the Ayatana Team at least keep an eye on - and at most, lend some design and
communication skills and polish to - this project?  If left to their own
devices, I'm afraid the project will only produce a very 'rinky-dink',
amateurish outcome that will not leave a good first impression.

I've already tried to lend my design opinions at
https://lists.launchpad.net/ubiquity-slideshow/maillist.html, but to little
or no avail. :-(

I could suggest other projects as well, but I'm curious what people think.
Is Ayatana just about starting new projects, or is it also about
participating in highly visible (to the end-user) projects, so that good,
consistent, well-designed 'look and feel' is persistent throughout the
Ubuntu experience?
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Re: [Ayatana] Idea: for Ayatana to have oversight of highly visible projects.

[David Siegel]

There are many different projects that Ayatana members can help drive, 
but I will just mention one quickly before heading to bed. 
hundredpapercuts could really use some "oversight" from Ayatana members.


Here are one hundred usability bugs we've planned to get fixed for 
Karmic: https://edge.launchpad.net/hundredpapercuts/karmic


If you're interested in putting your design and communication skills to 
use, please take a look at these. Many of them could use user testing 
data to determine appropriate solutions. A lot of them could use some 
design exploration in the form of mockups. Most of them having confusing 
or incomplete titles and descriptions, and need to have contact 
established with upstream stakeholders in the form of bug reports, and 
contact with developers on IRC and email to stir up motivation to 
address some of the longstanding usability issues.


David

H S wrote:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Ayatana:  "Ayatana's goal is to build a set 
of well researched and defined technologies to help extend, improve 
and refine the Open Source desktop"


Shouldn't that mean that Ayatana should have some oversight, or at 
least, be made aware of, certain highly visible projects?


For example, the slideshow that will show during the Ubiquity install 
for Karmic 
(https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/ubiquity-slideshow) will 
be the first impression that many new users will have of Ubuntu.  
Shouldn't the Ayatana Team at least keep an eye on - and at most, lend 
some design and communication skills and polish to - this project?  If 
left to their own devices, I'm afraid the project will only produce a 
very 'rinky-dink', amateurish outcome that will not leave a good first 
impression.


I've already tried to lend my design opinions at 
https://lists.launchpad.net/ubiquity-slideshow/maillist.html, but to 
little or no avail. :-(


I could suggest other projects as well, but I'm curious what people 
think.  Is Ayatana just about starting new projects, or is it also 
about participating in highly visible (to the end-user) projects, so 
that good, consistent, well-designed 'look and feel' is persistent 
throughout the Ubuntu experience?





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Re: [Ayatana] Idea: for Ayatana to have oversight of highly visible projects.

[mac_v]

H S wrote:
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Ayatana:  "Ayatana's goal is to build a set
> of well researched and defined technologies to help extend, improve and
> refine the Open Source desktop"
> 
> Shouldn't that mean that Ayatana should have some oversight, or at
> least, be made aware of, certain highly visible projects?
> 
> For example, the slideshow that will show during the Ubiquity install
> for Karmic
> (https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/ubiquity-slideshow) will be
> the first impression that many new users will have of Ubuntu. 
> Shouldn't the Ayatana Team at least keep an eye on - and at most, lend
> some design and communication skills and polish to - this project?  If
> left to their own devices, I'm afraid the project will only produce a
> very 'rinky-dink', amateurish outcome that will not leave a good first
> impression.
> 
> I've already tried to lend my design opinions at
> https://lists.launchpad.net/ubiquity-slideshow/maillist.html, but to
> little or no avail. :-(
> 
> I could suggest other projects as well, but I'm curious what people
> think.  Is Ayatana just about starting new projects, or is it also
> about participating in highly visible (to the end-user) projects, so
> that good, consistent, well-designed 'look and feel' is persistent
> throughout the Ubuntu experience?
> 

+1...

I think that this requires the guidance from the Desktop Experience Team...

Since they have done user testing , they know explicitly what the new
users expect/look for/miss in Ubuntu...

I'v seen the slideshow, But i'm not sure of the design...
Right now ,For a particular topic, It has 3 tiny screenshots are used in
a 800x600 background slide , with a lot of text... Which seems a bit too
much info , though essential info, seems to overwhelm the viewer.

A better way would be to:
1: split the text into 3 and use 3 LARGER [800x600] Screenshots as the
background and loop the 3 screenshots + 3Lines for that topic, Until the
user moves to the next topic...
2: the text should NOT be in a particular fixed location, the text is
placed in the empty space allowed as by the different screenshots...
3: If possible a pleasant music playing in the background [water
fall/breeze ]...

The splitting of the text + the varied positioning of the text , makes
it look as if the text is minimal and more "fun/interesting"...

Something to make the images flow into each other, as done here>
http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/810features/ the .jpg images
are looped ,could be used , which if done for a particular topic would
create a nice animated video feel.

Cheers,
mac_v

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