Re: A new design for Totem

Well, you are right, but I think that justifying a 'design' is not easy,
in another word, it's not easy to justify 'beauty'!! Since beauty doesn't have a logic,
or it has, but it's very complex!
Anyway, I'll do my best to explain my theory beyond my design, it seems interesting challenge :).

In fact, there are three reasons beyond my design for timing bar:

1- User doesn't focus by his eyes on a media player in the same way he focus on a word processor.
	Word processors have a 'side-focus-angle' which is the start reading/writing point, which is in the top-left side 
	of the application window (or top-right in middle-eastern languages).
	While in media players, there is no language-context. instead, there is a 'black board' hides a lot of events and
	surprises waiting to appear once in 'the middle of the screen', so it has a 'central-focus-point', and the whole
 	application should have this spirit; the spirit of centralization, that's why the timing information shouldn't be
 	considered as 'status' in a regular status bar in a regular language-context-based application, but it should 
	appear in a 'central black board' screen, just like the original video central black board!

2- There is a wide unused area under the 'seek bar', and timing information appears in a small silly corner in the
 	application window.
	The solution: taking the advantage of this unused area, and putting the timing information in a 'respected board'
	in this area, in as size that deserves.

3- By this suggested design we can make timing board richer, and more interactive.
	Rich: arranging timing information in distributed areas instead of putting it in a one simple line makes it more readable.
	Interactive: for example, double clicking on the time numbers to offer the time left with (-) sign, just like XMMP/Winamp.

Best regards, 
  
- Anas R.

======= At 2008-12-27, 07:29:15 you wrote: =======

>Anas,
>
>On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 3:51 AM, Anas R. <[email protected]> wrote:
>> I'd like to suggest a new design for Totem, take a look plz:
>> http://www.linuxfuture.org/archives/2008/10/entry_42.html
>
>Seems you want to become a design expert, so the one thing to learn:
>always justify everything. Every change has to be justified. Why black
>for the timing bar? Why a separate volume bar from mute button? Etc.
>Does it jusitfy occupation of screen real estate (=space)? Is the
>current design better? Is the current design optimal? Why not? Why was
>the current design chosen or how did it evolve into the current
>design? How can it be optimized? Do the techniques exist to do that?
>How would it look then? Is your proposed design closer to that design
>(or an optimal design) compared to that?
>
>That's how you do this. Just a picture isn't useful and tells us
>nothing. Please justify the picture and the ideas it represents.
>
>Ronald
>
>(PS I did part of the design for the current Totem, so I have some
>right to speak here)

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