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The current default theme has ~ 20x20 pixel window controls whose clickable area doesn't extend to the border of the window but instead is limited to the small size of the icon. Also, the mouseover effect is not that noticeable.

This makes it unnecessarily vague when dealing with window controls -- am I really hitting that close box? Can I click now? Especially people with slightly bad eyesight would probably appreciate larger, more chunky window controls with larger UI elements, and elements that extend all the way to the window border.

I believe such elements exist in some themes, e.g. the Aero copies.

Here is a blasphemous comparison to Win 7's default theme (50x20 pixel close box):





On Win 7, the buttons are larger but also (unnecessarily?) include a gradient that might make them harder to read.

I quite like the buttons as they are, but perhaps making the borders thicker would make the titlebar (hence the buttons) thicker as well... better for the visually impaired, methinks.

Madman wrote:I quite like the buttons as they are, but perhaps making the borders thicker would make the titlebar (hence the buttons) thicker as well... better for the visually impaired, methinks.

Yes, and there's a problem seeing where the titlebar ends and the window proper begins as well.

I'm not just thinking of the visually impaired (there are accessibility features to further help on that front), but from a practical point of view that benefits everyone:

Apple has red, green and yellow bubbles glued to their windows. It's not immediately clear what these do. They are equally spaced to each other. KDE has the advantage that the close box is space farther from the other buttons, that gives it emphasis and helps make it clear that it's a destructive action (closing a window).

So far, so good, but I still think the close box is tiny, and making it circular doesn't make it easier to hit. Making it square and large or simply allowing the hot area to extend to the border would already help.

I'd suggest to again steal from apple and give the buttons a clearly visible - not to say shiny lucid - glow when the mouse enters them:

red for close

yellow for minimize

green for maximize

so everyone should be fine: it is better to see and to handle, nothing really changes a lot and it is a bit more macish...

There is already a glow. Also, if you have an idea please post it in a separate thread.

the glow is very dark and weak. and this is just an addition, proposition of a solution, not an idea.

I just tried out the version of Plastik that ships with 4.3, and it has rather large controls (and the glow as well, a strong one).

Of course Plastik looks old-fashioned, but perhaps the more modern themes could copy some of its good aspects: large, square buttons, visible glow, visible color differentiation between active and inactive windows.

I feel better using KDE with Plastik than with the default theme now, the controls are much chunkier

I suggest then using other style than Oxygen for windecorations. Like nitrogen what allows you to have bigger buttons.

All if the improvements from Nitrogen have been ported to Oxygen for 4.4.

Yes I know that when the 4.4 plans came. It was good choise to upgrade Oxygen more. But currently people want something and they can not wait to 4.4 or even update their system to it, so Nitrogen is the answer for < 4.4 users.