Theme feedback: Dark Noise for Sansa e200

[Eugene C]

I'm new to the forums, bit I'm the guy who made the MediaFlo skin for the Sansa e200.

I've begun work on a new skin, called Dark Noise. I've created a version with album art, and one without, so here's a shot of the one with album art:


It's simplistic, but it offers enough functionality, and I do hope people will like it. I'm requesting any critique, criticism, or just general comments!

[[Saint]]

Eugene C,

Quite a nice theme, very....minimal (which is not always a bad thing).

Since you opened the discussion to critique, I thought I would add my two cents worth 

...I've created a version with album art, and one without...

-: Would it not be simpler to display the album art conditionally in the same theme?

-: What is the weird thing that I have marked "WTF!?!" in your main menu screenshot?
-: I switched the position of the progress bar and the track time/playlist position info, personally I think this looks a little better.
-: Again, this is just my personal opinion but I think that using a gradient line selector would look quite a lot better. I would probably use the two colours that you have for the progress bar as the values for primary and secondary colours for the gradient.
-: Is there an icon on the .sbs for disk access? I find it useful to add a disk access indicator (preferably an animated one) myself.



If you post the code for the .wps/.sbs somewhere I could take a look at it for you if you can't figure out what's causing it yourself. It's a nice theme, those are just a few things that I would change personally and one thing that I can't explain without first seeing the .wps code.


[St.]

[Eugene C]

Thanks for the critique!

The WTF thing is actually just the Aero window, since I took quick screenshots and cropped/slapped them together in MSPaint. The black border around the gray background is just the "Sansa".

There is no disk access indicator, though I could try to incorporate one. I'm a bit iffy on the progress bar/track info positions, since that was intentional in the design, and does look nice when on the actual device. Meanwhile, the gradient line selector would be nice, and I'll see if that works out too.

And the conditional thing: it could probably be fairly practical, but it's more convenient for those who dislike the slower load times with skins that show album art.

[Doleo]

I like [St.]'s swapped progress bar and info a bit better, to throw my opinion out there. Just a bit. Otherwise looks great. I would put a hard disk indicator in there as well, though I'm not sure if I would do an animated one. A non-animated one might suit the theme better, but that's your call.

[spike66]

I like [St.]'s swapped progress bar and info a bit better

I don't!  Plus, it doesn't look very smart to put the separating line and THEN the progress bar, and then the time info.

but that's your call

Isn't everything about this theme the author's call? Actually, I hope he carries on his original idea, his minimalistic approach results in a beautiful and elegant theme. I just have to agree that it's redundant to have a non album art version and an AA one.

[Serenity]

I like this theme!

I'll add another vote for conditional tags for the AA--not all my music has album art, so it would be nice to have the theme adjust for that and look slick all the time.

To play devil's advocate: With the swapped progress bar, why not do away with the separating line altogether and have the progress bar itself be the separating line?  Simplicity!  In reality, I do like the original--time info "sandwiched" between the two lines. 

[yapper]

+1 for the original layout

[Eugene C]

Actually, I hope he carries on his original idea, his minimalistic approach results in a beautiful and elegant theme. I just have to agree that it's redundant to have a non album art version and an AA one.

Thanks.

Yeah, I'll try to do that too.