[ubuntu-art] Dust menubar evolution

[Rico Sta. Cruz]

Yes, there has been quite a number of 'evolutions' since the first mockup.
They weren't done "just because," all of them were compromises on issues
that came up while testing the theme. Let me try to explain some of them
here:

Re: glossiness:
Most of what makes it appear glossy is the addition of the active titlebar
gradient. The version derived from the mockup had titlebars that were hard
to distinguish between active and inactive, and IMHO the subtle gradient was
the "dustiest" way to get to that goal given our limitations. (Ideally, the
whole window should change on inactive vs. active, but murrine/aurora GTK
doesn't give us that ability just yet.)

Re: lightness of the theme:
This, again, is a compromise to add more contrast to the look. The darkness
of the theme didn't quite bring out the brown tones on certain monitors.
Moreover, on displays that have low brightness (such as laptops with the
brightness down to it's minimum), all the (title/tool/menu)bars of all the
open windows mud up together and makes people "squint" just to see things.
The lighting up of the toolbar was in the name of usability of the theme for
a broader range of monitors.

Re: min/max/close buttons:
The original mockup had very small buttons. These looked fine, but again
wasn't quite a hit in the usability area. The new min/max/close button style
are there to increase their sizes without making things feel too bloated.

Anyway, as the creator of the Dust concept I feel it myself, too, that the
theme is slowly veering away from it's vision. I'm currently considering a
nicer way to integrate the title/menu/toolbars while reducing the overall
"heavy" feeling.


Manuel Mas-2 wrote:
> 
> *Hi all.
> 
> I've been testing Dust theme since its first release, very kind of it, but
> I
> think we're getting away from the original mockup, sometimes it's good,
> but
> sometimes it's bad : looking at the menubars, the original mockup is very
> clean. It's dark, compact, and the gradient is very soft, quite clean in
> fact. Looking back at the actual version of Dust, there are gradients
> everywhere in the top of a window :). Three of them in a Nautilus window,
> which is a little confusing I must say. Plus, the colors have gone lighter
> and lighter, and we now have a dark _grey_ theme, instead of the original
> dark one. Now Dust feels much glossier, I think, and less usable IMHO.
> 
> 
> Screenshot : http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/8178/dustmenubargv6.png .
> 
> And keep up the great work !
> 
> Steph.*
> 
> Totally agree.  Dust had me in the beginning but it has gone way off
> the first released mockup.  I think the 3 different gradient areas in
> Nautilus should be worked into one unison color gradient.
> Here is where I prefer New Wave, however Dust has a great metacity
> theme and the black is better than the gray at times in my opinion.
> Keep up the good work.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Manuel Mas
> 
> -- 
> ubuntu-art mailing list
> ubuntu-art at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
> 
> 

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