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I simply don't get this whole concept of trying to make simple utility programs look flashy and sleek. It's just completely unnecessary and a total waste of time. It's a tool for compressing and decompressing files for Christ's sake!

  TCLN Ryster said:
I simply don't get this whole concept of trying to make simple utility programs look flashy and sleek. It's just completely unnecessary and a total waste of time. It's a tool for compressing and decompressing files for Christ's sake!

Pretty sells.

A lot can be said for a program that bends into the OS better, in fact apps that bend tend to make the average user think they are more "professional" or "better" in some way. I know people that wont go the /. for news just because it's "ugly", and therefor "inferior" to say Digg or other sites.

Its also why some people are moving to Mac's you don't have many different UI's on Mac like you do for Windows, or the "stuck in 95" look many Linux apps have. It all looks like it belongs together, which goes along way for promoting your app.

Make a Winrar that looks like its form Win Me/2000 then one that was blended to look like Vista or 7, and see which the "average" person downloads. They will go for the one that bends better to the OS. It doesn't matter if the other launches, has cool command line tools, or runs faster, most people wont care.

  spikey_richie said:
Are you aware of Neilsen's usability heuristics?

http://www.useit.com/

He'd have a thing or two to say about it!

jakob_nielsen_thumbs_up.jpg

The same guy that proposed that we should stop password masking? Has he forgotten that there are plenty of people out there who need to keep this information private in the public? :rofl:

By itself, your mockup isn't terrible looking. However, that would make WinRAR look completely different from any other Windows app, requiring some sort of "skinning engine" to implement. Inconsistency within an OS is a bad thing... a very bad thing. If WinRAR switched over to this, or any other type of non-native "skin", I would drop it immediately.

  Deathray said:
It would definitely fit in better with Vista and Windows 7 with your UI concept

No... not at all. Quite the opposite, actually. The current native UI fits in perfectly, this would just make the desktop an inconsistent mess.

  Hitchhiker427 said:
By itself, your mockup isn't terrible looking. However, that would make WinRAR look completely different from any other Windows app, requiring some sort of "skinning engine" to implement. Inconsistency within an OS is a bad thing... a very bad thing. If WinRAR switched over to this, or any other type of non-native "skin", I would drop it immediately.

No... not at all. Quite the opposite, actually. The current native UI fits in perfectly, this would just make the desktop an inconsistent mess.

  primexx said:
hate it hate it hate it.

everything Hitchhiker427 said +1

I appreciate your thoughts but just to make myself more clear, I only tried to present the idea of a layout, the droppable locations and simpler archive controls. Non native elements are the result of my lacking skills and the blue graphic background is just me saying this is glass all over :) I am more comfortable around native interfaces but I don't think Winrar is currently using a native interface. It could be native in Win 9x/2000 era but now it is not with its non native file tree, navigation controls and working mechanism.

Has anyone ever used some of the themes for WinRAR?

I found that the UI of the application is fine, it's just the icons that are bad. But then I found the GNOME/Tango icon set, and now it's perfect. It looks great.

Your concept is just too... busy. The UI is already good, and I feel you've made such a simple application overcomplicated.

  backdrifter said:
I appreciate your thoughts but just to make myself more clear, I only tried to present the idea of a layout, the droppable locations and simpler archive controls. Non native elements are the result of my lacking skills and the blue graphic background is just me saying this is glass all over :) I am more comfortable around native interfaces but I don't think Winrar is currently using a native interface. It could be native in Win 9x/2000 era but now it is not with its non native file tree, navigation controls and working mechanism.

No, I understand that the blue all over is supposed to be glass. That's what I'm complaining about. Throwing glass "all over" would make it look like an inconsistent mess with the rest of the OS.

WinRAR is mostly native. No, the file tree does not use the most current widgets, but they're acceptable. I'm not sure why you feel that the navigation controls or "working mechanism" (not sure what that means) are non-native, but WinRAR is generally considered to use a native UI.

  AltecXP said:
Its also why some people are moving to Mac's you don't have many different UI's on Mac like you do for Windows, or the "stuck in 95" look many Linux apps have. It all looks like it belongs together, which goes along way for promoting your app.

Actually, I can't remember what thread it was in now, but someone debunked that one, UI elements in OSX are actually more disjointed in Windows, not less so. Windows is becoming more and more unified

Media Center:

post-286512-1246838236_thumb.jpg

Explorer:

post-286512-1246838269_thumb.jpg

IE:

post-286512-1246838290_thumb.jpg

WMP:

post-286512-1246838327_thumb.jpg

Photo Viewer:

post-286512-1246838345_thumb.jpg

Personally i'd say they have done a pretty good job of unifying their UI elements

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