Jump to content

Proposed Icon Design for a Future Release


Kevaunne

Recommended Posts

Hi all!

I've recently taken on the role as UI designer for UT. One of my first areas of focus has been revisiting the icon design. I've spent most of my time exploring new visual design options for the top bar (play, pause, search, settings, etc..) but I'm also doing some clean-up in the tabs and left column.

uticons.jpg

I went through numerous iterations and thought this set of understated icons worked best for a couple reasons:

1. The visual style is in-line with the brand's flat & minimalist look & feel. I initially designed some high-gloss versions that I felt didn't fit in as well with the rest of the visual design.

2. These icons do not compete with the most important content: your torrents. They're readable and usable but don't distract you from the important stuff.

Feel free to post comments or suggestions regarding the icons!

This same thread has also been posted in the UI section: http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?pid=653838#p653838

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I honestly prefer them the way they are now to your new designs, they just seem too small and less consistent/thematically related. To be honest, I preferred the 2.1 icons to the current ones, so I'd like to suggest the possibility of revisiting those, for inspiration at least. They are still simple, but also more in-line with most Windows programs in general.

Oh, and welcome to the team and forums! :D Hopefully you can whip the UI back into simplicity and cut the fat where possible.

If you could take a look at these outstanding UI issues it'd truly be appreciated:

1) gui.tall_category_list = *false breaks the sizing of the torrent list vs. the details pane. This is due to uTorrent acting like gui.show_plus_upsell = *true (and allocating the category list space for it) even though it is set to false. The program must be restarted for the issue to present. Screenshot.

2) The stream/playback button lags when the horizontal scroll bars are moved. Not the flat version, the "Windows-ized" version once you right-click it/it becomes available.

3) If ratings/comments are disabled, the dialog when removing a torrent shouldn't show up full of ratings/comments related stuff. I don't want to hide the dialog completely because I like having the failsafe of it asking me if I'm sure, but it shouldn't be asking me to rate something after I spent the time to go through all the options to disable ratings everywhere else. Basically it should just look like the multiple-torrent remove dialog when ratings have been disabled.

4) The search engine toolbar icon/box area still shows when the search engine list is empty in the Advanced options UI Extras (this is a reversion from old pre-3.x behavior). The box and icon used to disappear.

5) "Show a window that displays the files inside the torrent in advanced mode" should apply to Simple View since otherwise there's not much point in having the option.

6) gui.color_progress_bars should apply to the Info tab and Pieces tab as well. It doesn't make sense to revert to the basic blue/etc. in one area but not these others. I would have no problem with the default green, etc. progress bars if they were easier to read... The gray text on downloading files needs to be black. The background colours are almost too pastel for the white text to be easily read as it is; could they also be darkened a bit?

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I want green&red 3D icons ... ;)

Well, to be honest let me warn you: GUI wise, there are 4 kinds of users:

1. Those who don't care what you'll do because:

1.a They use their own preferred skin

1.b They use some older release and do not update

2. Those who will hate you no matter what you do, since they use the default GUI, and most people just get used to things, and do not want any change

3. Those who do not care much, since they use this client because of it's speed and other features, and not because of how it looks

4. All the rest - GUI lovers...

I give to #4 - <10% of the users... So, your best bet is to not ask anyone and do what you like ... :)

I, personally, am with my 2.2.1 look & feed-colors, and do not like GUI changes, unless they add some *functional* value or ease of use or better GUI reaction/load time . And yes, there are a few such requests... With all the hassle on the 3.x line and GUI, I really suggest to focus on such features and not on general look&feed.

Just my 2 cents...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Thanks for the input! I'll take note of those issues and let the team know.

What about the 2.1 icons did you like exactly? Why do you feel they are better than the current set?

I guess the 2.0.4/2.1 toolbar icons felt like they didn't try so hard to be different. They were just clean and attractive, self-explanitory and meshed well with the majority of other program iconsets on Windows.

The current toolbar gets the job done, and matches the tabs, sure, but in terms of visual appeal the minimalism got a little out of control. The clean lines of the icons on the left side are the one good thing about the 'spartan' look, but then the icons on the right don't even really seem to match in this respect.

I do really like the current color scheme for the Status column/progress bar (except for my critiques about the grey text and the pastel green re: readability) and find the matching tstatus perfect right now though. Even though the pallette doesn't appear to match the current toolbar or tabs (Apps/Featured/Devices don't count in my mind since I hide them/never use them - Devices really doesn't match at all).

I like the tstatus so much for intuitive design/visual appeal I'd actually like to suggest the toolbar/tabs be built around it instead. Come to think of it, the old 2.0.4 skin had purple Move Up/Down Queue that sort of match the current purple tstatus label icon...

TL;DR: I guess the best I could wish for is a theme based around the current tstatus/progress bar colours/style, fixed up, with both the current and old 2.0.4 toolbar and tabs for inspiration.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...