502 replies to this topic

[Barthlon]

bobobird, on Nov 6 2008, 16:14, said:

If we are to consider a new interface, then the one important thing is to do away with the today screen mentality and do it some other way.

thanks for the wake-up call you're totally right here. i got a little excited i guess.
i also read the startpost again and noticed hellbender already had a 2-slide idea for the interface which would deal with my "problem".

i'll stop hijacking this thread now

Edited by Barthlon, 06 November 2008 - 03:25 PM.

[Hellbender]

Barthlon, on Nov 6 2008, 17:16, said:

i don't need the startbutton, but the rest of the topbar is usefull. as i stated before i miss this in, for example, spb shell. you always have to return to the todayscreen to tap volume and reminders etc...

really, i don't need the windows bar, as long as the replacement interface replaces the functions it contains in some way

about the phone status and volume controls, they already are in my layouts, i agree they are vital, they are just at the bottom of the screen, and the start button i can't see it so essential as long as you can find all the functions it contains under other submenus. So the whole bar thing would fall.

Mainly this is meant to be cool to see, AND usable, but i'd sacrifice a little usability in favor of coolness, cause there are plenty of interfaces out there that are pretty useful and so spartan
i'd like something more on the other side. Today is actually way too efficient (with plugins) to be beaten, but i find it ugly (very personal opinion), so i'd like to make something new.

[GodsGift]

To everyone involved WOW superb work.

As previously stated I would be happy to donate to see this come to fruition ... Only thing is its gonna end up being a WM6.1 App rather than an Omnia specific.

Which is good for the authors but would be nice to keep it omnia specific
(selfish arent I!)

I like speleomanics vertical loop, but wouldnt this be more suited when in landscape to conserve screen real estate?

Can see this being huge in the WM community...

GG

[Hellbender]

mobilehappy, on Nov 6 2008, 15:13, said:

Keep it as a today plugin and keep the WM bars, you can then for instance use WishBar Advanced 3 for skinning and enhancing the bars themselves.

Some examples of very nice bars using WA3:

Prot'n V2 Skin

Clear Gloss Skin

Zifi  Skin

if you need to skin them to be nice with my interface, why just not cover them with the entire interface wich already is consistent with the theme. If you ask for that because you use taskbar applications, well, that's not a typical usage, and it falls in the "today usage" users , so if you want usability you need to sacrifice appearance and vice versa.

[speleomaniac]

a quick "programs" launcher - vertical style...
this one scans the "programs" directory and adds them as icons to the app. may be restricted to ENG firmwares only...
if you don't want to see your custom shortcuts, delete the file shortcuts.txt.

Attached Files

•  OmniShell.zip   10.53K   498 downloads

[speleomaniac]

Here comes the latest version. (I won't have the time to update it for the next few days..)

Changes are:

# Changed background image from .png to .gif. (better performance?)
# Some perspective changes.
# White icon text.
# The shortcuts can be run by clicking the buttons, optical joystick has no effect anymore.
# Configuration changes. (see shortcuts.txt in attached zip file. will change the name and format of this file later, when i don't feel so lazy.)
- Lines starting with ';' are comments now.
- The line starting with 'OSConfig': first parameter is directory to scan for additional icons [eg: \windows\start menu\programs]. if left blank, no icons are added. second parameter enables vibration on focused icon change [0 or 1]).
- Icons added by the specified directory will be zoomed 2x. (increased chance to hit)
- If the second parameter of a line is OSEXIT, the app will exit when the button is pressed
# The rotation stops now on the correct position. (sometimes takes a while if there are lots of icons. tried it by adding all files in windows directory )
# Operator name functional.
# Phone signal strength functional.
# Battery strength and status functional.
# Added clock.
# Program doesn't close anymore when a shortcut is selected.
# Changed the directdraw code. The app should now be compatible with any phone running WM 6.0+. Runs fine on emulators.
# ...

Anyway, if you liked it that much and want to have it launched at boot time, add the following registry key: HKLM/init/Launch200 which contains the full path of the program. (String value. \Program Files\OmniShell\OmniShell.exe in my case.)

Edit is in bold.

Attached Files

•  OmniShell.zip   132.6K   1225 downloads

Edited by speleomaniac, 07 November 2008 - 08:42 AM.

[Gibeon]

@speleomaniac: WOW. This is going really fast dude! I really love this stuff!
Only thing, if you flip the screen the app wil turn white, and you cant get it back with restarting the app, I needed a soft reset. But I assume that will be fixed later

GodsGift, on Nov 6 2008, 15:46, said:

As previously stated I would be happy to donate to see this come to fruition ... Only thing is its gonna end up being a WM6.1 App rather than an Omnia specific.

Which is good for the authors but would be nice to keep it omnia specific
(selfish arent I!)

Indeed, I would be nice to keep this as a Omnia interface!

[brainy85]

wow looks really great !
superb work but the Battery strength dont work for me !

[saitronprince]

Quick quips from an outsider (I've found an outside viewpoint can help) NOTE: I don't currently own, and never have owned, a winmo device. I'm 15, unforunately. I'm getting the omnia soon, however, so I've taken an interest in just about everything winmo. Anywho, my quips.
1) While it might be nice to have a good today screen, why not go deeper? I'm thinking:
-new scroll methods (flick scrolling, woooo!)
-do away with the scroll bars
-new interfaces for places people don't like, such as the camera (from what I've heard)
-integrate possible hardware intonations i.e. using hard keys for other functions
-recreate the widgets function. This is my most elaborate idea, I'm thinking this can be done TWO WAYS
1) Have some of the necessities that cannot be moved on the today screen. Then, have one little button that opens up a menu that allows you to pull up and drag stuff onto the mainscreen, including just about anything on the phone, as well as having a couple specific ones be more elaborate and expand, like the music player or calendar.
2) Continue with the rotating bar, but have one little button all the way at the back that allows you to customize order and and which ones are in the bar itself. This seems a little smarter than my first idea. A cool idea would have it that a single press expands it to show something about the program i.e. music player expands to show songs or something, and another tap opens the program. This is like PC laptops, where one touch on the pad selects and a quick two-tap executes it. Or, a little something like the blackberry storm, 'cept less elaborate.
Of course, these ideas are just ideas. Use them how you wish.

I now that a lot of this will require a helluva a lot of coding. I, however, only know HTML. So sue me. Sorry I can't contribute.
Also, a request: SCREENSHOTS! I wanna see how this is working out!

[Hellbender]

I'm out for a couple of days, when i'll come to work i'll make some more examples on how i think the wheel should behave.

Speleo i'd like to have 4 parameters accessible from the text file:

icons translation path width, translation path height/inclination, translation path center coordinates on screen and max visible icons at a time,

this last should come with another graphical tweak: as i said before i'd like, if possible, that when icons complete their 180° arch they disappear fading out, at the far sides of the path, this will lead to less icon on screen, bettere performances, and clean reading of the foreground icons (the background icon are indeed unreadable especially when covered by the foreground ones).

in the mean time i'll build a little flash animation to show you the icons behaviour when pressed and transition between menus.

saitronprince, on Nov 8 2008, 03:52, said:

Quick quips from an outsider (I've found an outside viewpoint can help) NOTE: I don't currently own, and never have owned, a winmo device. I'm 15, unforunately. I'm getting the omnia soon, however, so I've taken an interest in just about everything winmo. Anywho, my quips.
1) While it might be nice to have a good today screen, why not go deeper? I'm thinking:
-new scroll methods (flick scrolling, woooo!)

this is already present in some apps written for WM6, mainly ports from iphone apps. I think it's possible, but i'm not a programmer and basically this is just the launcher, i'd like to perfect it BEFORE starting to work on some other screen. Flick (or kinetic) scrolling is cool, will keep it in mind.

saitronprince, on Nov 8 2008, 03:52, said:

-do away with the scroll bars
-new interfaces for places people don't like, such as the camera (from what I've heard)

never red of that, i though that camera was just fine, it's minimal and standard stylish. I don't actually know if we will push so far in designing.

saitronprince, on Nov 8 2008, 03:52, said:

-integrate possible hardware intonations i.e. using hard keys for other functions
-recreate the widgets function. This is my most elaborate idea, I'm thinking this can be done TWO WAYS
1) Have some of the necessities that cannot be moved on the today screen. Then, have one little button that opens up a menu that allows you to pull up and drag stuff onto the mainscreen, including just about anything on the phone, as well as having a couple specific ones be more elaborate and expand, like the music player or calendar.
2) Continue with the rotating bar, but have one little button all the way at the back that allows you to customize order and and which ones are in the bar itself. This seems a little smarter than my first idea. A cool idea would have it that a single press expands it to show something about the program i.e. music player expands to show songs or something, and another tap opens the program. This is like PC laptops, where one touch on the pad selects and a quick two-tap executes it. Or, a little something like the blackberry storm, 'cept less elaborate.
Of course, these ideas are just ideas. Use them how you wish.

I now that a lot of this will require a helluva a lot of coding. I, however, only know HTML. So sue me. Sorry I can't contribute.
Also, a request: SCREENSHOTS! I wanna see how this is working out!

Actually i though that widgets was a bad born of an interface that wanted to stand between a today and a more visual appealing interface, the result (imho) is just discouraging, nor extremely functional neither particularly cute (i disabled them the first day i had my phone). I repeat that this is just the launcher environment, it's the core of this interface, but it isn't the section that you will have on screen for the most time i suppose, some sort of graphical app browser, there will be other sections with different functions, i hope (it doesn't depend just on me). Obviously i'd like the launcher to be customizable (in terms of number of tabs and programs launched). We will see.

Thank you for your thoughs.

Edited by Hellbender, 09 November 2008 - 05:53 PM.

[Rapixx]

Wow, the screen you post and the first post are amazing !
That would be great if you could do that !

[Hellbender]

Here are two animations of possible transitions between menus inside the launcher

Slide up transition

Push button transition

I like both. I think we will choose the more performant, or the most rated if performance are the same.

Let's see what our Speleomaniac have to say

[speleomaniac]

Hellbender, on Nov 10 2008, 11:00, said:

Here are two animations of possible transitions between menus inside the launcher

Slide up transition

Push button transition

I like both. I think we will choose the more performant, or the most rated if performance are the same.

Let's see what our Speleomaniac have to say

impossible is nothing...
nice job hellbender. will try those fade effects asap, hope the impact on performance is minimal.

[Hellbender]

speleomaniac, on Nov 10 2008, 14:57, said:

impossible is nothing...
nice job hellbender. will try those fade effects asap, hope the impact on performance is minimal.

I'll eventually reduce the icons size to help speed.
I was asking myself... Xscale technology could in any way help us to gain performance and smoothness?
I don't know much about it, but i know it's some sort of special set of instructions dedicated to the omnia Intel CPU.

Edited by Hellbender, 10 November 2008 - 01:36 PM.

[Gibeon]

I LOVE the push button version!

[Barthlon]

Gibeon, on Nov 10 2008, 17:01, said:

I LOVE the push button version!

agree on that!

the last version of the exe works fine and icons do stop in the middle now, but it's still pretty hard to get the one you need to stop in place
also i think the idea of hiding the images while in the back is a good idea, i think the spinner would be more clear and the overview would be better then. so i mean you can only see the front half/180 degrees of the circle.

keep up the work guys, and ill keep testing

[Hellbender]

Barthlon, on Nov 10 2008, 18:33, said:

agree on that!

the last version of the exe works fine and icons do stop in the middle now, but it's still pretty hard to get the one you need to stop in place
also i think the idea of hiding the images while in the back is a good idea, i think the spinner would be more clear and the overview would be better then. so i mean you can only see the front half/180 degrees of the circle.

keep up the work guys, and ill keep testing

Well i didn't mentioned that i'd like the push animation to be in either two behaviours, i think should be the standard animation for all the buttons.

[Gibeon]

Barthlon, on Nov 10 2008, 16:33, said:

the last version of the exe works fine and icons do stop in the middle now, but it's still pretty hard to get the one you need to stop in place

Agree with that!

[Magpie2000k]

WOW WOW WOW

how good could this device be

Have to say you guys could be onto the most usable interface ever!!

Keep it going guys

[Hellbender]

Just updated the pics on the main page, i've added softkeys to task manger and to lock the device on the spinner, and revised the home screen with some helpful things. The softkeys in the launcher aren't meant to be customizable (visually speaking) but i think it could be possible to launch a custom program from them. I choose Task manager and Lock cause i think this are the two most used functions in the long term.

I split the status bar in 4 different icons placed at the corners of the screen:




-the top left clock, which i'd like to be presente in all other screens as well, may link to the home screen when pressed.
-the top right speaker should call up an additional screen where to set pda and phone volumes, in addition it gives visual info on the actual audio profile (will do different icons).
-the bottom right icon represents the actual network protocol, i figure that tapping that will open a sort of connection manager.  
-the bottom left corner contains the network operator and the signal strenght (new representation)

I decided to split them cause i usually have problems tapping them with fingers in the actual WM status bar, this way they should be easyer to touch without touching something else.

Removed the task ring from the portrait screen, it was too crowdy and i fear performances would have been poor.

Added a bar on the bottom of the screen that measures the battery status, batty-like, i find it cooler than the default battery indicator and very self contained while more informative. I've also considered a glass battery somewhere like the i-phone one, but it's too cumbersome for its final functionality, so i scrapped it.

What about a new system of locking up the pda? S2U2 i mean, but redesigned to fit this style, maybe with a new locking contraption (sort of a touch keyhole?)

Edited by Hellbender, 13 November 2008 - 07:55 PM.