The Challenges for WindowBlinds skinning
Sunday, December 13, 2009 by Frogboy | Discussion: Object Desktop blogs
Since my return to being the Product Manager of Object Desktop and the programs that make it up in October, one of my jobs has been to re-evaluate where skinning is today and try to take the products in the direction I think skinning is going.
Object Desktop 2010, launched this month, is the result of some of this thinking – at least, as much as we could do in a couple of months.
My mantra for skinning has basically been: Make it useful, target power users. I’m not interested in making software for grandma or pointless cosmetics which is the direction Object Desktop took in my view for the past few years.
Let me give you an example of the problem with skinning in a Windows 7 world.
Paint.net with plain Aero:
Pros: Perfect compatibility, visually pleasing.
Cons: It’s just AERO, like everyone else.
Next:
Paint.net with WindowBlinds 7 running a UIS 2 skin (Sublime):
Pros: Looks cool, very customizeable.
Cons: Cosmetic glitches can mar functional compatibility.
Next: WindowBlinds 7 running a UIS 0 skin (Aero Clay black)
Pros: Perfect compatibility, customizeable Aero.
Cons: Still basically Aero.
Next: WindowBlinds 7 with a UIS 0 Hybrid skin (Corporate Aero)
Pros: Perfect compatibility, skinned controls and client area, customzeable Aero
Cons: Aero frames limits how much skinning you can do.
Probably the single biggest change that I see coming to skinning is its return to the realm of power users. That means, if it’s a cosmetic only change then it better be 100% compatible and have no downsides.
Power users might sacrifice something if it increases their productivity or looks significantly better but in the age of Aero, I have yet to see a skin that looks so good that I’d be willing to give up one iota of compatibility and I suspect I’m not alone.
That’s why UIS 0 is so important and moving forward why UIS 0 Hybrid is so important.
UIS 2 skins, the ones that let skinners go wild, will continue to evolve to be better and better but there will always be apps that do different things that acan’t be predicted.
The upcoming public release of SkinStudio 7 will be crucial because it’ll include easy ways of making UIS 0 skins. I wouldn’t mind there being a SkinStudio 7 Starter Edition that just does UIS 0 to simplify things for new skinners.
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Reply #22 Monday, December 14, 2009 7:35 PM
Cosmetics is exactly why I love windowblinds. It's why I started skinning in the first place. The default skins that Microsoft has been putting out are quite dull/boring....even Aero.
"WindowBlinds changes the look and feel of your Windows Desktop by applying visual styles to your entire Windows environment. When a visual style is applied, they change nearly every elements of the Windows GUI such as title bars, push buttons, the Start bar, menu and more."
Reply #23 Tuesday, December 15, 2009 4:23 AM
me too
Reply #24 Thursday, January 14, 2010 4:39 AM
Glad to hear UIS2 isn't going anywhere. Those have been some of my favorite themes. Only slight concern is the boundries for close/maximise/minimize on some themes. I could click way in the the upper right-hand corner of this Firefox window with Sublime and it would still close, for example, even though the close button is about 1 cm in from my perspective. (don't know how many pixels, but it's at least one cursor's width when using the Windows default cursors.) Plus the very last pixel on the bottom of the screen doesn't trigger the Aero Peek (when the taskbar is in the default position)
edit: ah, a dragon spewing fire... Sweet memories of Molten... Now I want to go figure out how to skin jump lists so it'll be as close to Win7-compatable as possible. Unfortunately it isn't 100% compatable... Not to complain, but the "All Programs" highlighted on the Start menu remains unskinned, and jump lists aren't. (I understand it was originally an XP/Vista skin, but that one was one of my favorites when showing off Windowblinds to people)
yet another edit: I am glad to see that Office 2010 skins fully, not just the menubar. (there's no ugly Aero gap where there should be skin)
Reply #25 Tuesday, February 16, 2010 4:18 PM
I have to say UIS0 is really growing on me, I'd like to see a bubbly skin (aero bubbles 
)
I'm glad you've noticed these bugs as well, It would be nice for UIS2 skins to be able to skin glass windows better. I wish you luck for the future
Reply #26 Tuesday, February 16, 2010 4:28 PM
Oh, and...
this is probably NEVER going to happen but is there any chance that you could make UIS0 play nicer with custom msstyles ? I like aero but there are some small but really annoying UI bugs that a slightly modded msstyles would fix. But uis0 skins on custom msstyles look really wierd 
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Reply #21 Monday, December 14, 2009 7:32 PM
Well said Mouse Goddess! All of this is pointless unless it is fun