Hmm. Interesting. Just noticed that the Start menu, which I posted, is not he one there was supposed to be. That's the first draft I made... Forgot to upload, it seems. (That's what you get when you do stuff right when tired) Oh, well, I'll upload it when I'm back at my apartment.
(Few changes that the real version has: Printers submenu of My Computer, Search and Run are on their own rows, both have extendable recent menus. The arrow is taken away from recent applications.)
mf wrote:crappish: most people smile with their teeth bared. This smiley does too . (I don't, since I never had braces so I tend to hide my crooked teeth)
Funny that people mention GUI design as being a "small part of" UI design, since ReactOS is so bound to Windows conventions, meaning we can't change much more than the very outer shell. If you want to go reinvent UI wheels, check out SkyOS. ReactOS however, has the driveletters, the windows, the executable files, and a basic "should work similar to" expectance that makes it impossible to change much more than the thin outer GUI layer. Personally I think the most interesting UI challenge is making coLinux and the Win32 subsystem integrate seamlessly, but it's kinda early to be thinking about that right now.
@crappish
That start menu is sorta nice, but what's new? To me it just looks like a stretched (lots of useless whitespace) classic start menu with some extra menu items. There's no overview, grouping, or other such essential GUI elements. You have put in emphasis though, but in rather odd locations. The help button is in an interesting location, but it implies help about using the start menu and doesn't at first glance suggest help using the OS or its programs. Also Run is back to being a regular menuitem, instead of a handy inputbox where you can directly type the location. There's also unused space next to "Power Off", which could be used for MadRat's suggestions such as Lock Screen or Log off.
You can change alot in the UI design and still have it behave like Windows.
To the comments:
Like I said, the concept of being "another Windows" forces the UI to keep conventional feel of things. The "classic look" guarantees that regular windows user will feel like home and can work with the OS out-of-the-box. The "how much new" factor isn't that important, the "how well it behaves" is much much more important.
crappish wrote:- Power off (maybe add Log off, too tired to add that anymore)
I don't think the Lock Screen get's that much use so that's why it isn't there. I do realize that it is important feature, specially in companies but since it get's hardly no use for regular users I would still keep it behind ctrl+alt+del, where it still can be accessed in a matter of seconds.
The rest of you comments I just don't get. "
No overview and no grouping"? Also, could you point me to the place where I want to reinvent the UI? I have always said that as ReactOS aims to be "another Windows" and should be handled as such.
- "
Run is back to being a regular menuitem, instead of a handy inputbox where you can directly type the location", I hope you are aware that regular user do no type the location of a file, they use the browse button.
- "
You have put in emphasis though, but in rather odd locations", and where do you think the regular user goes most? To My Computer or to My Documents?
Those smilies don't have teeths. They all use the same white for expressing the mouth. At least I get the impression that the -smilie is laughing, or at least going to. But I guess that's just me. Enough of the pointless offtopic.