June 26, 2004

Winstripe Improved

The latest nightly branch builds of Mozilla Firefox have a heavily improved version of Winstripe that makes me kind of want to use the default theme again. It looks much more Windows XP native now than in the 0.9 release.

winstripe.png

Some comments though:

  1. Some of the colors are a bit pale. For example, the Home icon could use a more vibrant shade on the roof.
  2. There's a bit too much padding on the buttons, as seen on the hover state of the Home button in the screenshot above. I know IE uses about the same amount, but I don't really see why we have to copy that. If it's a usability issue (easier to click on large buttons), then my next comment is valid:
  3. The Tab Close button on the tab bar doesn't use the same hover state as the toolbar buttons. It lacks the border shown on the Home button above. This makes it harder to click the button. I've accidentally missed it several times since I started to use Winstripe.

Overall, this is looking very promising! The Back/Forward arrows are much better, the roundness is there, the gradients are more noticeable now. It's obvious that most work has been done for the five standard buttons, but I'm sure the rest of them will get the same amount of attention later. Very good work guys!

Posted by djst at June 26, 2004 5:58 PM
Comments

I can't believe the Mozilla Visual Identity Team bowed down to the likes of you! They should've at least bowed down to Lim Chee Aun. Winstripe for 0.9 is much better than 0.9.1. While 0.9.1's Back/Forward arrows are better, 0.9's weren't bad. The new Reload is insanely fat, and looks like the Big Blue Blob rather than chasing arrows and Home looks rediculous with the little green window and in it's new "modern" XP 3D look.

Posted by: Loogi at June 26, 2004 8:19 PM

Very promising ??? Berk.

Posted by: Daniel Glazman at June 26, 2004 9:11 PM

I agree completely with what you've said, although the theme is still missing that special something IMHO.

I can't narrow down exactly what is missing though!

Posted by: Doug at June 26, 2004 9:59 PM

I think that the bug about too much space arround the icons on toolbar buttons is this one:

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=245884

Posted by: Senatore at June 26, 2004 11:02 PM

That does look better. It would be nice if the home icon was in the same style as the rest (flat as well). Still, qute suffers from that too. I could use this.

Posted by: Joeri at June 27, 2004 12:10 AM

I'm one of those who really likes the neatness introduced by winstripe. And while i don't necessarely distate qute, adapting winstripe in that direction doesn't really excite me, since the twos distinguish each other for coming from a different approch.
That said go on with the plan and stabilyze. That's the keyword i think, let the people get used to changes while explaining your reasons (common visual identity, etc.) and keeping an ear open to suggestions. Getting confused by reactions and subsequentally modifying the theme at each release is not the way to go. Stabilyze and let the people get used or in place of a strong identity you'll come up with a mess.

Posted by: Antonio at June 27, 2004 12:18 AM

The throbber still looks like crap...

Posted by: Professor at June 27, 2004 4:58 AM

The Winstripe theme is less "winstripe" now, especially the home button.

Posted by: minghong at June 27, 2004 10:18 AM

I don't care at all about how my theme looks, so I have little opinion in the Qute v. Winstripe argument, but the problems with the tab close button (comment 3) are driving me insane.

Posted by: Will at June 27, 2004 2:12 PM

I kind of like it, but Chee Aun's versions looked better. The new home button is like an IE6 home put through the washing machine a few hundred times. Plus it looks like there's a bindi in the middle of it..?

I think the main problem is colour now (same with the update.mozilla.org site--blue bar, ugh ;)), even though the icons just don't look so special, they kind of remind me of Opera's new toolbar.

Posted by: gman at June 27, 2004 2:42 PM

BTW I like how close tab button works! :P But it too does look a bit pale

Posted by: gman at June 27, 2004 2:43 PM

I hate to say it, but the home button is pretty nasty. Qute went through some horrible home buttons before it arrived at something decent, but this home button doesn't even go with the rest of the theme. The 0.9 Winstripe really isn't bad, it's just different, and I already like it more than any of the themes on update.mozilla.org. The flat look works for me, even the horizontal drop shadows which others complained of as to "Mac-like".

Posted by: Bill Pena at June 28, 2004 4:53 PM

Great. This impovement let downloading quote not necessary.

Posted by: Alex Lin at July 3, 2004 7:08 PM