Things that you look for in a WB Skin

:)

Sunday, April 9, 2006 by Robbie_Boy | Discussion: WindowBlinds

What are the top three things that you look for in a WB Skin.

one can be the color.


Looking for some idears guys
7 Reply 7 Referrals
scorpio-logic
Reply #1 Sunday, April 9, 2006 10:19 AM
Originality.
Functionality.


You do great work! So, what, did you run out of inspiration??? Can't beleive that.

How about something non-Vista-esque, or OS X ported. Hey! KDE hasn't been seen, or GNOME. But they are rather bland and you can jsut use LiteStep on those.

Something that uses the old plugins...the clock, wbamp...and some animations. I haven't many really cool animations-the taskbar for example.

Prolly too much suggestioning (? did I just type that?), so I'll leave it to someone else now.

Happy skinning!

Keikonium
Reply #2 Sunday, April 9, 2006 10:20 AM
Personally it isn't JUST about the look. It has to be functional and readable . I hate finding an amazing looking skin, only to find out that there is light grey text on white, or grey on black >_o. I can't work with a skin like that .

Window Headers with the buttons cut off, or the browser icon and name cut off when maximized just suck .

Speaking of the buttons, when people make the buttons incredibly small, I don't like that either >_o. The vista style buttons are perfect I think.

Now for the look:

Black . I love black skins. Anything dark really. As long as it doesn't have horrible colors mixed in, and barly readble fonts. The big start buttons are cool also.

And as for transparency, not to much. It can be destracting. I think that Aura by Mike B has just the right amount of transparancy.

And no shadows either . I hate dragging a window by it's shadow. If I want shadows, I'll use WinFX.

Thats all I can think of right now, and thats my persoanl opinion.

EDIT:

Gah, sorry . Did read that you were looking for only 3 things . Oops...

Island Dog
Reply #3 Sunday, April 9, 2006 11:16 AM

I can tell you things I don't look for.

Someone's website pasted all over the start panel.


Robbie_Boy
Reply #4 Sunday, April 9, 2006 1:20 PM
You do great work! So, what, did you run out of inspiration??? Can't beleive that.


No i just don't have much time at the moment (have alot of work and no free time)

I have the right Windowblind for me allready Solaire-dark that has all what i want in a Windowblind and it's getting better all the time (there will be an update soon with all the changes that i'm making)

I would like to make one for all you guys with the things you would like to see in it!!!!!!!

so i need colors too (your fav color with the code if posable 255.208.56 )

Adamness
Reply #5 Sunday, April 9, 2006 2:23 PM
One thing I don't like seeing are the obvious Photoshop gradients. Or any obvious Photoshopping for that matter.

I go for the simple skins. Usually black, white or a shade of gray, with good contrast between text and background.

The Frank Lloyd Wright saying of 'form follows function' should always be applied.

MikeO89
Reply #6 Monday, April 10, 2006 12:29 PM
As stated earlier, for me it's all about functionality, something I can use on a daily basis that looks good and doesn't have errors in it. Like windows that don't fill the fullscreen, text that is not readable on some programs (wrong color text on wrong color background), button errors, text sizing issues, and them dam transparent windows! I hate those things, completely non-functional to me having text over text. What's the point of having a thousand skins on your computer and only use 5 of them? I have downloaded probably about 300 skins so far. To keep track of the ones I like and to prevent my faulty memory from re-installing ones I don't like, I have a windowblinds folder and a windowblind regects folder. I can tell you that the rejects folder has like 5 times more skins in it. Seems the trend is on the "wow" effect much more than functionality. Wow is good for about 5 minutes until you actually try to use it and then it ends up going in the trash can. I have Skinstudio and do try to change some skins that I could live with if some changes were made. While Skinstudio has helped me with changing some things, I think it needs to be re-designed (or have a separate one) that is focused more on editing than making from scratch. It's hard to know exactly what you trying to change sometimes. I'm not talking about changing the design, I'm talking about changing text sizing (regular, mouseover, pressed, etc), text colors (same), background colors. Sometimes you think you got it right and then open another program and don't see any text (dark on dark or light on light) and have to highlight to see the text. Then going back into Skinstudio, having no idea where to look to change it or don't see any dark on dark or light on light combinations to change.

ZubaZ
Reply #7 Monday, April 10, 2006 12:42 PM
I like the smart buttons. Hook me up with the WMP controls. Hit me one time with a clock on every skin. Let me launch my default text editor.

That's what I'm talkin' about!

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