Jowaldo's skin - what would make it better?

by **davidortiz661** on Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:27 pm

The dark blue, looks good and I also like the pink / red but I would have to see it in action.

by **Arthur** on Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:19 pm

The screen in the first post is nice, but I also like the green and orange (bit different). Modified the screen as shown below.
The main things which could be improved is the number of buttons (I've made my own now, but new users just lack icons (like AtTheGates, no games or tv icon)
The screen in the first post leaves more room for buttons, which is very good.
As for the quick button color test, I only dislike #4

Arthur

by **jowaldo** on Thu Sep 16, 2004 9:17 pm

Arthur wrote:The screen in the first post is nice, but I also like the green and orange (bit different). Modified the screen as shown below.
The main things which could be improved is the number of buttons (I've made my own now, but new users just lack icons (like AtTheGates, no games or tv icon)
The screen in the first post leaves more room for buttons, which is very good.
Arthur

Yeah I purposely made more room for buttons on that screen. I'm in the process of getting some more icons together for those who may want it.

by **Aaron** on Mon Sep 20, 2004 2:42 pm

Jowado,
You know I like about 90% of the skin but I'm not a fan of the white dividing lines or the layout/navigation on the music page.

I had a few ideas I thought I'd throw your way...

What about making the skin more 3D/layered?
Simular to this very simple example -
http://www.rokulabs.com/products/hd1000/ui.php
basically, where you have the white dividing lines separating sections, what if you made the separations by color differential and raising or lowering the layer? This would give the skin more depth.

OR

What about using semi-transparant layering like I did on my netremote skin? This also allows for depth and separation.

Also,
Maybe making layers less geometric and more curved... less straight lines.

As for the music page...
I think naviagation/controls flow better if all the buttons are in the same proxcimity, not some on the top of the screen while others on the bottom. It somewhat breaks the flow and you are looking all over the screen to find the control/function you want.
It makes it easier if the arrows and such are all in the same area, on each screen, this way new users do not need to "look around" each time they encounter a new screen.

Know what I mean?

Maybe it is my personal taste but I've designed quite a few GUIs (web and home automation / home theater) and this method seems to work the best, look the cleanest, and is the easiest to use.

btw... your http://members.cox.net/xlobby/jowaldo-beta3test.zip link is not working

by **jowaldo** on Mon Sep 20, 2004 3:19 pm

Thanks for all the suggestions, I am currently working on the layout of my music pages, so hopefully they will be more functional then, and also just look better.

If you want the latest copy of my skin, its at:

http://www.xlobby.com/files/jowaldo/jowaldo.zip

by **justonemore** on Sat Sep 25, 2004 2:28 pm

Jowaldo..Not sure what I'm doing wrong, but when I try to load your skin it seems to HANG on " loading: images ". Have you seen this before. When I run the default skin she loads right up.

BTW. This happens on your latest and the beta 3

by **jowaldo** on Sun Sep 26, 2004 5:25 pm

Are you using the latest exes? http://www.xlobby.com/xlobby2.zip

That fixes it for some people, otherwise, have you tried a fresh install + updated exes?

One of those two things always seems to fix problems like that.

by **vicom** on Mon Sep 27, 2004 5:57 pm

Jowaldo,

The offline movie overlay's text and pic on my 3 different boxes running different instances of XL with Jowaldo Beta 3 skin has an offset.. :cry:

How does one go about editing overlays? After inserting the required offline movie disc, and clicking on the CONTINUE button, nothing happens

One other thing if I run one of the boxes as an XL server and run XLsd (client) one another box using your skin, some of the fonts disappear or they are reduced to way too small to read size on the client... am I doing something wrong or do i need to set something?

by **jowaldo** on Mon Sep 27, 2004 7:28 pm

Are you sure you are using the latest exes on both your server and client?

Also you might want to try this latest test version of my skin, instead of beta 3

http://www.xlobby.com/files/jowaldo/jowaldo.zip

by **justonemore** on Tue Sep 28, 2004 8:55 pm

The newest .exe's did it for me. Thanks Jowaldo

by **vicom** on Wed Sep 29, 2004 2:44 pm

Jowaldo,

It did not solve my problem .. I'm still getting an offset on the Offline Movie screen :-(

.. I'll post a snapshot tomorow

by **jowaldo** on Thu Sep 30, 2004 3:28 pm

yeah I think I'd need to see it, and maybe I'll be able to tell whats going on.

by **vicom** on Thu Sep 30, 2004 3:51 pm

I've e-mailed to you cos I can't seem to post am image on the forum

by **jowaldo** on Thu Sep 30, 2004 3:58 pm

Just got it. What resolution are you running xlobby at?

by **vicom** on Fri Oct 01, 2004 12:39 pm

usually at 1024 x 768 , that snapshot was from a 1152x864 i get the same problem on both resolutions

Jowaldo's skin - what would make it better?

What should I change to the style of my skin?