Sandstorm Shell UI Update | Preview

[Nena Nguyen]

Hi All,

I'm Nena Nguyen, designer of the Sandcat mascot and the News banner. I've been working closely with Drew Fisher on additional design changes to the Sandstorm shell UI and wanted to share these mock-ups with everyone so you all know what to expect. The shell is currently undergoing a much anticipated transformation all in an effort to make it easier to create, open, and manage different grains- as well as install new apps.

I've uploaded the existing previews to a Lychee Album for your viewing.

(Note that we're currently still developing and making changes so the actual UI update may end up looking different from the mock-ups.) 

Please feel free to reach out and provide early feedback.

Regards,

--

Néna Nguyễn

sandstorm.io - a radically easier way to host personal web apps

[Kenton Varda]

On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 2:41 PM, Nena Nguyen <ne...@sandstorm.io> wrote:

Hi All,

I'm Nena Nguyen, designer of the Sandcat mascot and the News banner.

Not to mention the whole sandstorm.io front page. :)

 

I've been working closely with Drew Fisher on additional design changes to the Sandstorm shell UI and wanted to share these mock-ups with everyone so you all know what to expect. The shell is currently undergoing a much anticipated transformation all in an effort to make it easier to create, open, and manage different grains- as well as install new apps.

I've uploaded the existing previews to a Lychee Album for your viewing.

So pretty!

 

(Note that we're currently still developing and making changes so the actual UI update may end up looking different from the mock-ups.) 

Please feel free to reach out and provide early feedback.

Regards,

--

Néna Nguyễn

sandstorm.io - a radically easier way to host personal web apps

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[owen.s...@e43.eu]

My initial critiques (otherwise, looks great!):

* The "upload" icon looks too much like an up arrow used for navigating up a directory structure IMO. I guess this is why most "upload" icons have a globe in them
* The "Sign In" text looks weird to me. Maybe it's the all caps? Maybe its that the text isn't center aligned with the logo?
* (Indeed I notice that there's quite a lot of all caps. It makes things quite reminiscent of Windows 8)
* I like the "pointy" dropdowns

[Jake Weisz]

As the list's resident bitter snob about trendy design styles... I have to say I'm relatively happy with the design here. The top bar is a bit thicker, but I don't think it's used poorly. I like the muted dark grey. I like the pointy dropdowns too (and I feel that almost makes the thicker top bar worth it.)

The side bar, I assume, collapses, particularly when inside an app? I'm not sure how clear that is in the album since most of the pictures show it there.

-Jacob Weisz

[Kenton Varda]

On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 3:02 PM, Jake Weisz <jtn...@gmail.com> wrote:

As the list's resident bitter snob about trendy design styles... I have to say I'm relatively happy with the design here. The top bar is a bit thicker, but I don't think it's used poorly. I like the muted dark grey. I like the pointy dropdowns too (and I feel that almost makes the thicker top bar worth it.)

I agree the topbar is a bit thick and would like to see it thinned back down, to avoid taking any vertical space away from apps.

 

The side bar, I assume, collapses, particularly when inside an app? I'm not sure how clear that is in the album since most of the pictures show it there.

The sidebar can be toggled between hidden and shown by clicking in the upper-left (the "sandstorm" logo, which previously went "home"). By default, though, it will be visible at all times. The reason for this is that we expect that having "fast switching" of grains through the sidebar will encourage people to write finer-grained apps. Consider, for example, Let's Chat, which currently hosts multiple chat rooms per grain. The ability to fast-switch between chat rooms is apparently considered important and therefore there has been resistance to changing it to be one-room-per-grain. But if Sandstorm does fast switching itself, then the app no longer needs to.

In any case, most desktop screens have an abundance of horizontal space, so I feel like the sidebar doesn't do much harm, compared to, say, having a thicker topbar.

-Kenton

[Jake Weisz]

I am happy with it being visible by default, as long as I can still hide it if I don't need it. I agree that horizontal space on desktops tend to be abundant, and using space there is probably a "healthier" choice than adding more to the top bar.

-Jacob Weisz

[Jade Wang]

Healthier multigrain, artisanally hand-crafted. ;)

Cheers,

Jade

--

Sandstorm.io - a radically easier way to host personal web apps

[Nena Nguyen]

Hi Jake,

As the list's resident bitter snob about trendy design styles... I have to say I'm relatively happy with the design here. The top bar is a bit thicker, but I don't think it's used poorly. I like the muted dark grey. I like the pointy dropdowns too (and I feel that almost makes the thicker top bar worth it.)

 

That's great to hear! We will be narrowing the top bar a touch(compared to the previews) though to leave some extra space for apps.



Hi Owen,

My initial critiques (otherwise, looks great!): 

 

Thanks for your feedback! :)
 

* The "upload" icon looks too much like an up arrow used for navigating up a directory structure IMO. I guess this is why most "upload" icons have a globe in them 

 

Hmm. That's a good point, I'll explore some options. Perhaps with a bracket underneath or a cloud(cliche...). Thoughts?

* The "Sign In" text looks weird to me. Maybe it's the all caps? Maybe its that the text isn't center aligned with the logo? 

* (Indeed I notice that there's quite a lot of all caps. It makes things quite reminiscent of Windows 8) 

 

Yeah, some of the mock-ups have all caps everywhere but we're in the process of limiting them to just some buttons for legibility.
 

* I like the "pointy" dropdowns

 

Thanks! :) 

[Nena Nguyen]

Hi All,

Here is a new Lychee album link for recently updated mock-ups: https://oasis.sandstorm.io/shared/FTGuMfBYNT2uuY4IwGkoJm_idc9tS7PvB-m-BNBgBB-