Yeah I think the white might be relevant in this case... or maybe not, perhaps we can figure something out...

This is just without the white... I'm gonna try adding some kind of clarification to it soon

notmart wrote:

The translucency is looking much better here, I think. Thanks Marco! As for the tasks decoration, yeah I totally agree that it'll work better flat and 2px thinner like Jens suggested.

jensreuterberg wrote:Ok so a quick and dirty mockup

This +1000!

notmart wrote:yeah, that's how i wanted the tabbar, I'll see if I can implement the code part in time for the alpha release, so designers will be able to play with it on a live system.
about the white part, i'm not 100% sure how to do it cleanly from the implementation part, I'll think about it. probably just will end up providing a component for that hoping it will not get too much epicly misused

An element would be really helpful for content areas like that. Maybe another element in the frame.svg called "content" or "view" or some such... Misuse is probably inevitable with any component. Better to provide a good toolkit to create great looking apps and maybe manage misuse with new visual design guidelines and the HIG.

alake wrote:An element would be really helpful for content areas like that. Maybe another element in the frame.svg called "content" or "view" or some such... Misuse is probably inevitable with any component. Better to provide a good toolkit to create great looking apps and maybe manage misuse with new visual design guidelines and the HIG.

I was just thinking about just using "flat" of frame.svg, and to make it easy, providing a qml component just called Frame that uses it.

Oh I just got a comment on the blog from a guy who suggested that the marker above the taskbar item could be used as a status bar. If something is downloading or doing something the little bar could have a progress bar effect.

I thought it sounded kinda neat personally

jensreuterberg wrote:Yeah I think the white might be relevant in this case... or maybe not, perhaps we can figure something out...

This is just without the white... I'm gonna try adding some kind of clarification to it soon

Even if we go without the lighter background in this specific case, having it available in the toolkit will be helpful for times when we do need it. I tend towards putting simple, discrete controls on the chrome and putting the more information dense content areas on a lighter background (for grouping, contrast, etc.).

notmart wrote:

alake wrote:An element would be really helpful for content areas like that. Maybe another element in the frame.svg called "content" or "view" or some such... Misuse is probably inevitable with any component. Better to provide a good toolkit to create great looking apps and maybe manage misuse with new visual design guidelines and the HIG.

I was just thinking about just using "flat" of frame.svg, and to make it easy, providing a qml component just called Frame that uses it.

That'd probably be fine. We'd just have to see where else we're using "flat" to see how it might be affected. Hmm... The thing is, there are times when we need grouping on the chrome and, separately, content grouping. I think that's sorta why all the application widgets styles across all platforms have a View background separate from the normal on-chrome grouping elements.

Ooh hang on... "flat" would be a new element for frame.svg right? I only see "plain", "sunken and "raised' in there right now. Never mind, "flat" would be just fine!

jensreuterberg wrote:Oh I just got a comment on the blog from a guy who suggested that the marker above the taskbar item could be used as a status bar. If something is downloading or doing something the little bar could have a progress bar effect.

I thought it sounded kinda neat personally

How cool would that be? And isn't it neat that the visuals we've come with so far kinda works with this since the progress looks pretty much the same.

alake wrote:Ooh hang on... "flat" would be a new element for frame.svg right? I only see "plain", "sunken and "raised' in there right now. Never mind, "flat" would be just fine!

ah, "plain", right, i was confused

In our widget set, we have a component for views, that is ScrollArea, so may be given a background. but I'm not sure if it would be optimal, since it's really just for "scrolling" things, so listviews and what not (so in the case of kickoff would go kinda well, until we want to group something else in the same background, like the little breadcrumb.. in this case it becomes a problem)

current appearance

so should be possible to play with it with the alpha live images when we churn them out

notmart wrote:

alake wrote:Ooh hang on... "flat" would be a new element for frame.svg right? I only see "plain", "sunken and "raised' in there right now. Never mind, "flat" would be just fine!

ah, "plain", right, i was confused

In our widget set, we have a component for views, that is ScrollArea, so may be given a background. but I'm not sure if it would be optimal, since it's really just for "scrolling" things, so listviews and what not (so in the case of kickoff would go kinda well, until we want to group something else in the same background, like the little breadcrumb.. in this case it becomes a problem)

Thanks for clearing that up Marco. Yeah, for all those reasons as well, it certainly seems like a separate element for more general content/view backgrounds would be very helpful to our visual design goals.

jensreuterberg wrote:Oh I just got a comment on the blog from a guy who suggested that the marker above the taskbar item could be used as a status bar. If something is downloading or doing something the little bar could have a progress bar effect.

I thought it sounded kinda neat personally

Sounds not completely straightforward to use that theme element as a progress bar (what about other themes?), but Marco would know better how feasible it is.

The actual functionality of showing a progress bar on the task shouldn't be too hard to implement since it already exists for the Icon-Only task manager.

Ok so I'm convinced.



The flatter, thinner indicators really do seem to work better for the variety of ways we want to use them (selected tabs, selected panel items). I went ahead and updated the tasks and tabbar svgs accordingly and pushed it into the repo. Thanks for everyone's patience with me!

notmart wrote:attempt at making the rest of the applets aligned exactly as the taskbar.. indeed more aligned, but i don't like it..

For the panel applets, I think the reason it probably doesn't work so well aligning it vertically with the task items is that the task items almost always have an indicator on top, whereas the other panel applets don't. So the vertical alignment of those applets look off when when they're not selected. Maybe instead of aligning them vertically with the task items, maybe just adding a small padding/margin to both the top and bottom (or all the way around) of each applet in the panel might work a little better? That might hopefully keep the applet's vertical alignment while still providing a little room for the indicator (and may work with themes that don't have the indicator just on top or panels in the east/west location). Just thinking out loud.

Hope this helps!

Nice! I like.

What do you guys think about moving the indicators closer to the panel edge? I experimented with putting it at the edge, here's a quick mockup:



(Note that I took away the white panel border in this mockup, may play a bit more with it tomorrow.)
This should look better with regards to alignment for the other panel items. I personally don't like the idea of shrinking the other icons to match the task bar (what Marco showed earlier).

After this very.. well lets say.. exiting carnival weekend i'm back again:
So far there is now:

• amarok
• audio
• apport
• device
• klipper
• korgac
• nepomuk (do we need this!?)
• preferences -> randr, notofication, bluetooth(inactive, normal, activated)
• printer
• quassel
• synaptiks
• wallet

so how do i git this up in the repository