Bezel Interface Refresh

[Patrick Robertson]

I was looking through some of my old branches and some ideas I had a while back (some of you may have guessed from the tweet I just made), and this one caught my eye.

Seeing as the Bezel Interface is supposedly our 'official' interface, it's in dire need of some work. Back in Dec last year I made a few changes to reduce the bezel radius, reduce the wasted space around each object pane, and a few other changes. It's very similar now in design to the Nostromo interface (thanks Rob!)

Are the changes in the attached pictures enough to warrant a new release of the interface, or should we try and add more polish.

Does anyone have any ideas on what we could do to polish it up? I know there are a few handy icon designers lurking about who might have a better eye for design than me... ;-)

Depending on the thoughts from the devs, I may ask the feedback of our twitter/ Google Groups users unless anybody objects :)

If you want to take my new redesign for a spin, download the .zip file from here and drop the .qsplugin into /Applications/Quicksilver.app/Contents/PlugIns/ then relaunch QS

P.S. Bezels are so 2000s...

[philostein]

That's a lot better. I tried to do this recently by editing some of the plugin files in Xcode, but I failed miserably. 

The old one looks like a cathode-ray-tube TV set in a display cabinet.

[Henning Jungkurth]

hmm...I like the roundness of the old version. The new one feels
very...boxy. More like a normal window of any other application. But
because QS is different from any other application, it also deserves a
very different look

I agree the space around the panes could be reduced. But I do like the
roundness.

But I also think that I could live with the new design if everybody
else says it's better. :-)

[Patrick Robertson]

> .I like the roundness of the old version. The new one feels
very...boxy. 

Try dropping the plugin I linked to above into QS.app/Contents/PlugIns and seeing what you think. I've always liked the Bezel Interface, but a friend (who's new to Mac) said that he'd started using QS (of course, he has to!) and that he didn't like the 'old fashioned' look of the Bezel Interface.

It took me a few minutes to get used to the new interface, but every time I see it I say to myself "hello sexy..." :P

Habits often make us not want to change things, I think QS needs to be brought properly into the 21st century.

We could perhaps release the old Bezel plugin as a 'vintage' release (external plugin) if users still wanted it.

[Rob McBroom]

On Apr 30, 2012, at 6:27 PM, Patrick Robertson wrote:

If you want to take my new redesign for a spin, download the .zip file from here and drop the .qsplugin into /Applications/Quicksilver.app/Contents/PlugIns/ then relaunch QS

Personally, I prefer the new look over the old, but I don’t really use Bezel very often. People that have to look at it every day should get a bigger vote.

-- 
Rob McBroom
<http://www.skurfer.com/>

[Howard Melman]

Personally I think if you're going to change the look, make it a new interface. :)

I also prefer the roundness.

I'm also thinking that if you change bezel I have to change EVERY image in the manual. :(

Howard

[Scott Smith]

After trying out the new design, I can say I like it. Any change at all will make people notice that something is new and fresh. For example, in iOS 5.1, Apple changed the color of the lock screen arrow on the iPad. It was a small change, but it made the interface feel fresh again. 

This is a good move, now if you wanted to take it a step father, I would make the animation be the same sort of animation LaunchPad uses. The current animation gives it a classic feel that isn't really necessary; something more modern is in order. 

Also, I'm not sure if it is possible, but if you could add a blur effect to the glass-like interface similar to Terminal's "Silver Aerogel" theme, it would look very nice. 

[philostein]

The problem with blur effects is they obscure the text behind them, and particularly so for this interface as it is fixed in place.

New Bezel and Bezel Classic? Make the new one the default and see the response. If more people are unhappy then switch back to Bezel Classic as the default.

Howard's right - it'd be a pane to switch out all the images. Boom boom.

[Scott Smith]

But obscuring the text isn't a new issue. The Bezel Interface makes things behind it very difficult to read anyway, so it is kind of a moot point. 

I like the naming idea. I would just call them Bezel New (or Neue, if your prefer) and Bezel Classic so when they are sorted alphabetically (I think), they stay next to each other. 

[Patrick Robertson]

I like your idea of making the interface fade in and out Scott, I'll look into that.

As for the glass idea - I just tried the theme you mentioned for Terminal, and it almost killed my computer. Clearly the graphics power required to make it work is far beyond what my Intel GMA X3100 graphics card can take. So for me, having that enabled for the bezel interface would probably kill it for me and quite a few other users.

If it's an easy change I may look into it though, but I don't want to make changes that are going to cause QS's CPU usage to jump with no 'real' benefit to usability.