new theme: arboxWidgets [iPod 320x240]: help

[kratonator]

Sure, the more, the merrier.

[hhannah]

OK then!

The first decision to make is what the general distribution of the screen will be, (I agree that it's better to continue this using PM's or email) so you can send me a sketch of what you think this distribution should be. I think this will be much easier for you, since I might be kind of mentally stuck to the iPod Video screen, and, of course, since you are a Sansa user and I'm not . I made a quick sketch so that you have a starting point, placing 4 widgets and 3 mini-widgets, but of course, you can come up with something totally different

[kperri]

Hello,

I have created a Gigabeat port for your theme. I'm debating on whether or not to post it in the wiki and would love to have comments and opinions on the layout. Is it OK the way it is or should I rearrange the "widgets"?

Thanks,

Keith

Edit: Updated Screenshots

[hhannah]

Shure it's fine to modify and adapt the theme (you - or anyone - just would have to follow the guidelines stated in the creative commons license that covers it CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)... so please go ahead and post it in the wiki, it looks good!

Edit: Well Keith, I'm not a Gigabeat user, but thinking about it, I'd probably go for a "cleaner", more simetrical screen. Take a look at the image below (a dummy) for what I mean (under this option the codec info is not yet shown)

Edit 2: The clock to the left of the AA will interfere with it, so that specific widget couldn't be there, I just want to show you the general layout from what I mean

[kperri]

That was how i originally was going to do it, but found out that it wouldn't work with the clock on the left. I guess I could redo it that way by switching the clock with another widget.

I don't have time right now, but later today I will modify it and post the result for further comments.

Thanks for the opinions!

[hhannah]

Keith, I really like the screen layout of your gigabeat... for this theme is actually great. So since the gigabeat and the iPod video's screens have the same size (just inverted), and not much modifying is necessary (at least that's what I thought! ), I went ahead and ported my theme to the gigabeat (http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WpsGigabeatF)

I Would really appreciate your feedback about layout and information displayed; we could surely modify it if necessary. It´s also very important, since I could only test it on the simulator, that you can actually test if everything works OK.

[kperri]

It looks pretty good to me. I don't currently have anyway to test it on target as I have misplaced the usb cable to my Gigabeat. When I find it (hopefully this evening), I will test it out. Also, I have plans for a more centered--both vertically and horizontally--layout as an alternate design.

[kratonator]

I started the work on the Sansa version, didn't came too far tho. Here's the progress.

Note: I like the nimbus-14 font better, so I aligned the icons to work with nimbus-14 and I enlarged the icons a bit so that they fit better.

[hhannah]

@kratonator! I really like the font!

I see that you are using a bigger size for the first 2 widgets. In my opinion that might make the screen look a bit "crowded"; that's why I thought of even reducing the original size of the widgets, also eliminating the text inside them. In the first sketch I posted for you are two possible sizes. In any case, you would probably only be able to fit 6 or 7 widgets, so before placing any specific widget, it might be a good idea to decide which ones to discard. Also having in mind to keep the screen with a "clean" look, consider eliminating the AA frame. Defining the general layout would really help (text, widget sizes and AA distribution)

[Chronon]

Nice theme.  I look forward to the completion of the Gigabeat and Sansa ports.

[hhannah]

Chronon, the gigabeat port is already up in the wiki http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WpsGigabeatF#arboxWidgets ... needs testing & feedback!!!  

Edit: The download is working now!

[Chronon]

I'll give it a whirl tonight.   

I can't get the download to work properly at the moment.

Edit: I will test it out shortly.

Edit2: Attached a screen dump.  Everything looks good on target.

[kratonator]

@kratonator! I really like the font!

I see that you are using a bigger size for the first 2 widgets. In my opinion that might make the screen look a bit "crowded"; that's why I thought of even reducing the original size of the widgets, also eliminating the text inside them. In the first sketch I posted for you are two possible sizes. In any case, you would probably only be able to fit 6 or 7 widgets, so before placing any specific widget, it might be a good idea to decide which ones to discard. Also having in mind to keep the screen with a "clean" look, consider eliminating the AA frame. Defining the general layout would really help (text, widget sizes and AA distribution)

Thanks for the inputs.
I've already decided which widgets I will put (progress, repeat, battery, shuffle,HDD, volume). They don't fit on the Sansa now, so it might be possible that we ditch the HDD and the progress widgets (or transform the original progress widget in one long widget).

By enlarging the Date&Time widgets I wanted to make them fit perfectly on the right of the Album Art. IMHO, it looks better like this (2 bigger widgets) instead of 3 smaller widgets that don't fit perfectly.

[hhannah]

kratonator, I guess in this matters different persons will always have different preferences, all valid and quite possibly leading to equally good results    I'm looking forward to your adaptation! If I can help you with any base-icon or anything else just let me know.

For my Sansa version, since the screen is smaller, it was not an easy task, but I did it trying to keep what I consider the theme's original version "visual feel"

[soap]

1 - Please edit the wiki so arboxWidgets_G_NF is hosted on the wiki - and does not point to an external host.

2 - Looks nice.