[usability] default theme

[Daniel Robitaille]

> >> I'm concerned about the default theme from a usability perspective:
> >> The
> >> flat appearance of all the controls (particularly on a
> >> less-than-perfect laptop monitor) makes them harder to spot and
> >> provides fewer visual cues that they're clickable. Why not use, say,
> >> Glider controls instead? They have some 3D appearance to convey that
> >> you can click on them, but are still pretty subtle and don't hit you
> >> over the head with their 3D effects.
> >
> > Personally, I prefer the current (Industrial) theme. It looks easier
> > to identify the borders around the controls. Glider, to me, looks very
> > 3D, but has poor border identification.
> 
> I could see that being an issue, particularly on poor monitors and many
> LCDs. I imagine the rationale behind either would be "slickness." But
> there are several other themes that have both the recognizable borders
> and the 3D, and still look nice. Why not one of those?
> 

interesting.   I  have a very poor monitor on the machine I'm writing
this on (circa 1997 15in monitor about to die in a big heap of
fuzziness), and I can't say I would characterize  the default theme as
bad on this poor monitor. In other distro I use (or have used in the
past), I always find myself trying to change the default theme within
a few days of usage,  but I haven't felt that urge at all with Ubuntu
after a few weeks of usage. So down deep my subconscious must like
Ubuntu's default theme and must think it works just fine, even on this
crappy monitor :)