Future AmigaOS GUI

[NewRevolution]

This thread has sky rocketed! :-D

Almost hard to keep up. Is there a possibility that  the screenshots that have been posted (and not posted) could be put in a folder somewhere so we can look at them more closely? And maybe put some descriptive text along with them? - Describing what the different gadgets and buttons are.

I would really like to take my time to look at these concepts and provide feedback. Only wish I had my Amiga and the "concepts" so I could try them out.

I've also posted some feedback in the other thread.

[NewRevolution]

Actually, Microsoft are one of the worst companies at creating interfaces. Pretty much everything they make has shocking human interface howlers!

That is your words Tickly.  If you had any idea of how much effor Microsoft puts into their usability testing, you would be surprised.

HCI and Usability are key aspects of developing a GUI and underlaying layers of OS. I would like to hear what those shocking human interface howlers are. Um.. never mind :-)

I think Microsoft has done one H¤%& of a job designing the XP interface. XP is a very advanced system, and makeing it usable to all users demands a lot of usability testing.

Read some of my other threads in other discussions and you will find a link about how they went about going from Win 3.11 to Win95. Pretty interesting reading.

When it comes to Usability, Accessibility and HCI, I get interested. Was one of my favourite subjects at school :-D And I hope I get a job working with it - there are a lot of bad interfaces out there!

[NewRevolution]

I could not have said it better SnowBord. :-)

Just out of curiosity. Does anyone know if Amiga Inc. are performing any usability testing for their OS4? Taking a look at the "official" screenshots of OS4 doesn't really impress me.

I believe there should be done some improvement on the widget layouts in generall (if I've understood what widgets are) and then some.

Come to think of it, does Amiga Inc. have any HCI or Usability engineers at all in their team? Or are they just CxOs and a bunch of coders?

And how is OS4 designed for people with disabilities like hand coordination (mouse), bad sight, blind etc.

That last one was just thinking aloud :-D

[NewRevolution]

I went to the site, and it didn't work! In any case, that's just a few guys "expert" opinion.

We should learn from the titans. Learn from their success factors and their mistakes. Research the web for articles on usability testing regarding OS's.

Then make som mock ups and test their functionality.  Have other users test it - and not just the Amiga community. Hardcore amiga fans will hate a new contemporary look - they will feel as a part of Amiga dies. Let it be so - we can't live in the past, we have to move on. And that is, as I have mentioned before, to be creative, think new, think different.

How can a GUI be designed to make it usable?
Can the OS support different levels of knowledge? (e.g. a built in function that sets the "difficulty"  on menu options according to if you are a novice user or an advanced user)
Does the GUI support 1,2 or 3 mouse button actions? How does the windows layer themselves?
And the list goes on!

Hm... maybe we should start a thread that lists and discusses areas that will improve a future GUI?

[NewRevolution]

Psy had me take a look at an article written in  osnews.

Eugenia Loli-Queru wrote:
Overall, MorphOS doesn't have the sparkle that a modern OS should have. It feels like a remnant of another era. A beloved era for many people for sure, but another, older era nonetheless. I don't see MorphOS (in its current shape) as the main attraction for this platform, unless Genesi puts a number of engineers to work hard to bring this OS up to speed and usability levels that other OSes today like OSX, Linux or Windows have. It seems that this is happening though, as this new screenshot of Morphos 1.4-alpha shows, now with AA fonts.

I believe Eugenia touches the core of the new Amiga OS platform. There is too much old "workbench" in it. To change that, one must probably go into the code itself to change behaviours of windows, mouse and other.
Amiga Inc and MorphOS should do exactly that!

The imgaes from SimoAmi, are they just skins? Or is it programatically implemented?

[NewRevolution]

Nice - not so gloomy anymore.
But I have a few questions (this might be because I have used M$ too much.....)

1. What is the difference between USE and SAVE? Is there a point in using a screensetting without saving it?
2. Screen supports predefined scr sizez right? so why have width/height when you choose this from display mode?
3. Maybe have a option where we could set the Hz?
4. Is it necesary to show the mode properties when this more or less shown in display mode scroll window?
5. Which way do you drag the bar to select number of colors? Maybe put min. color in one end and max colors in other end?
6. For people with bad vision or color blindness, they will have problems reading the 'Display mode' and 'mode properties' text, because it is grey text on grey background.

[NewRevolution]

Does anyone remember commodore 128? Do you remember that by holding down a coupple of buttons you could switch to C64 "mode"?

Would that be something one could consider for Amiga? If users want to have traditional amiga look and functionality - one only have to press a few buttons and *uala*, there you have your OS3.1. Then on the new OS one could have added funtctionality better suited for todays environment.

[NewRevolution]

I wasn't just thinking of the skins - but functionality as well. Because if we want some serious change in GUI, we have to change the code for how windows behaves - widgets and all that.

Btw. I found some lecture notes regarding GUI and widgets. Since I knew very little about widgets, I found it intersting. Might be a bit biased towards M$..... Here is the link for those of you (or not) that are in the same boat as me  :-D
The link

[NewRevolution]

As long as images isn't over 25k, I'm happy. I've only got a 56k modem, and if the pictures get to be 100+k I start to worry :-)

I proposed it before, I can repeat myself.
Can all prototype proposals be uploaded the the img gallery? Maybe there can be created a separate folder for GUI prototypes or something. That way, everybody can study the images without browsing back 5-6 pages to find them.

[NewRevolution]

@teotwin

Very nice.
I like the idea of tabs (input, interface etc)
The scrollboc for display mode is alright.

1) It's still too gray. Maybe make the buttons a bit brighter?

1.1) Try to avoid Gray text og gray background. Colorblind and visual imparied ppl will have problems.

2) The arrows for Refresh rate and Depth are pointing right. Are these dropdown? How about having a arrow pointing down?

3) What is the difference betwen 'USE' and 'SAVE' button?

4) Can user select e.g. 1024x300? Why are there selection for screen "size" when this is choosen in Display mode?
A solution could be the way it is in windows. A dragbar that prevent users from setting invalid screen sizes.

5) The window is very compact - will this be large enough for the other folders(sound, input etc)?

6) Is is possible to have a plain background? Not a stripy bg? Reading text on a "noisy" background is more tireing than with plain bg.