Do you mean that they should hire a professional designer for it?
Of course, we at BuggyDownDesign can offer our services...
Just joking.
Seriously, why not? If they have the means it'll be good investment.
Ask any adman, no matter how good/bad the product the presentation can make all the difference.
Maybe their business or marketing model isn't meant to be profitable, given all the free competition.
If they just mean to get by on a couple of golden versions maybe they'd do better making it open source.
I always thought of the vitreousblue skin to be a professional looking skin. I mean it's simple and good looking. It's modern ( inspired by vista/seven ).
It would be nice if you could explain in details what are the things to change in the skins. maybe with screen shots(?)
Sorry, won't do screenshots. I don't want to make the post about any one skin again. But when making a skin I would ask myself if a chain of balls is a good way to represent volume or if it'd be redundant making it like the star rating if it shows the percentage of volume. Or, could argue the pros and cons of putting a non togglable small now playing albumart in the main window where there's a better alternative. Or if light blue really works well inside the same space as black. Is the secundary titlebar too big when the main one's font is at least a point too big.
Most importantly, Does it seem whole? like no matter what element I'm looking at it's always the same skin.
Graphic designers have a mantra: Less is More. Can be tricky to implement, but man is it true.
Also I gave you a link in my first post in this thread where you can make wishes regarding the skinning engine.
Since you have tried to play a bit with it, maybe you could make specific wishes for the skinning engine.
I thought about it, some of the ones I'd ask for are already there.
Before starting this thread I was discouraged to make a list because I got the impression that some problems are beyond simple bugs, and that the whole thing needed the most recent version or customize a whole other new engine.
Have you notice the sloppiness when resizing the Music Explorer Tree, or how buttons sometimes disappear? Or how all too often the players get broken when not pinned to the bottom?
Just can't imagine I needed to point that out to developers. But some kind of radical change was needed.
Then came the issue of the tendencies in the skins which I have expressed myself about. Thing that I had the feeling would never change and couldn't bear.
But for what I've read so far. This thread has not been constructive.
Between every reply I've given I think there's an evident effort to be constructive but I often feel like the only one here.
Nevertheless, I think some thing that needed to be said have gotten to.
The critics you made are too general. So are the design guidelines you talk about.
It would be interesting if you would explain with more depth how they could be used for MM skinning.
To really, really get to that point, I'd have to be actively skinning, and it seems to me that good ideas for elements and layout for MM skins have to be thrown away because they just can't be implemented now.
To do that I'd feel like doing somebody else's job for a company's profit that I'm just not able to do.
When you design, when you draw, you need a concept that's specific, but you start from the general and work your way to the specific.
The tribute skin approach, so often used in MM is the opposite of that. You start with all the unknowns of the final look resolved, but the implementation gives you problems, that tend to make you end up with something that looks broken or incomplete.
By giving guidelines and opinions that may seem too general I'm trying to better the way Skins for MM get built from the ground up.
You need a good base. If you try to eat
after you drank too much, you're just gonna barf. But if you prepare yourself right before, your friends won't be youtubing you.
Maybe also provide some links and reference to it(?)
I really hate home work
[quote]Do you mean that they should hire a professional designer for it? [/quote]
Of course, we at BuggyDownDesign can offer our services...
Just joking.
Seriously, why not? If they have the means it'll be good investment.
Ask any adman, no matter how good/bad the product the presentation can make all the difference.
Maybe their business or marketing model isn't meant to be profitable, given all the free competition.
If they just mean to get by on a couple of golden versions maybe they'd do better making it open source.
[quote]I always thought of the vitreousblue skin to be a professional looking skin. I mean it's simple and good looking. It's modern ( inspired by vista/seven ).
It would be nice if you could explain in details what are the things to change in the skins. maybe with screen shots(?) [/quote]
Sorry, won't do screenshots. I don't want to make the post about any one skin again. But when making a skin I would ask myself if a chain of balls is a good way to represent volume or if it'd be redundant making it like the star rating if it shows the percentage of volume. Or, could argue the pros and cons of putting a non togglable small now playing albumart in the main window where there's a better alternative. Or if light blue really works well inside the same space as black. Is the secundary titlebar too big when the main one's font is at least a point too big.
Most importantly, Does it seem whole? like no matter what element I'm looking at it's always the same skin.
Graphic designers have a mantra: Less is More. Can be tricky to implement, but man is it true.
[quote]Also I gave you a link in my first post in this thread where you can make wishes regarding the skinning engine.
Since you have tried to play a bit with it, maybe you could make specific wishes for the skinning engine.[/quote]
I thought about it, some of the ones I'd ask for are already there.
Before starting this thread I was discouraged to make a list because I got the impression that some problems are beyond simple bugs, and that the whole thing needed the most recent version or customize a whole other new engine.
Have you notice the sloppiness when resizing the Music Explorer Tree, or how buttons sometimes disappear? Or how all too often the players get broken when not pinned to the bottom?
Just can't imagine I needed to point that out to developers. But some kind of radical change was needed.
Then came the issue of the tendencies in the skins which I have expressed myself about. Thing that I had the feeling would never change and couldn't bear.
[quote]But for what I've read so far. This thread has not been constructive.[/quote]
Between every reply I've given I think there's an evident effort to be constructive but I often feel like the only one here.
Nevertheless, I think some thing that needed to be said have gotten to.
[quote]The critics you made are too general. So are the design guidelines you talk about.
It would be interesting if you would explain with more depth how they could be used for MM skinning.[/quote]
To really, really get to that point, I'd have to be actively skinning, and it seems to me that good ideas for elements and layout for MM skins have to be thrown away because they just can't be implemented now.
To do that I'd feel like doing somebody else's job for a company's profit that I'm just not able to do.
When you design, when you draw, you need a concept that's specific, but you start from the general and work your way to the specific.
The tribute skin approach, so often used in MM is the opposite of that. You start with all the unknowns of the final look resolved, but the implementation gives you problems, that tend to make you end up with something that looks broken or incomplete.
By giving guidelines and opinions that may seem too general I'm trying to better the way Skins for MM get built from the ground up.
You need a good base. If you try to eat [i]after[/i] you drank too much, you're just gonna barf. But if you prepare yourself right before, your friends won't be youtubing you.
[quote]Maybe also provide some links and reference to it(?)[/quote]
I really hate home work