festivalnut | # 11 | 2011-02-23, 23:08 | Report

graphics? all i see is the matrix...

uvatbc | # 12 | 2011-02-23, 23:09 | Report

Troll alert.

jackburton | # 13 | 2011-02-23, 23:09 | Report

Doesn't QML make the creation of richer UI implementations feasible? At least this is what is marketed. I haven't tried QML at this point, but that's where I would start if a rich UI were my goal.

http://wiki.maemo.org/QML

QML is part of Qt Quick tools here:
http://qt.nokia.com/products/qt-quick/

There is a decent video there and there is tutorial code that exists that can be used to get started.

teohhanhui | # 14 | 2011-02-23, 23:10 | Report

Perhaps you could give some feedback to the app's developer on what's wrong with the UI (and how to improve it).

uvatbc | # 15 | 2011-02-23, 23:11 | Report

Just using QML isn't enough. Knowing what looks good is important. Technical knowledge I have, aesthetic sense, not.

jackburton | # 16 | 2011-02-23, 23:19 | Report

This is very true. I agree. I work with developers all day who think they know what looks good and how users will respond to their personal ideas.

This is where good human factors engineering helps. I have only taken a single college class on the subject, so I know the value in knowing my opinion rarely has value on its own.

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Last edited by jackburton; 2011-02-23 at 23:22.

kojacker | # 17 | 2011-02-23, 23:26 | Report

Ever heard the term "programmers art"? Visual flair is not something we are all born with

It takes the same code to display a nicely designed image as to display a bad one, the difference between the two is that only the images used or the choice of colors needs updated. You have to remember that most of the apps here are written by one-man-bands on zero budget.. a single person who writes all of the code, does all of the testing, buys the books and trawls through the wikis to get it built and working, design the layout and graphics, searches online for some royalty free music or sfx, draws the images and tries to knock up a few animated sprites in paint, etc etc.. A jack of all trades, but it's not easy to be good at everything! You're probably comparing these free and opensource efforts to commercial applications with budgets to employ professional teams with maybe 3 or 4 designers and artists amongst 10-12 developers.

On the other hand, what you describe with the black background and standard layout etc etc could be an app designed to be consistent with the normal n900 hildon theme - in that case a design choice by the developer. There are a lot of people who don't want inconsistently designed apps on their phones, but a similar look and feel for them all.

Now, as these projects are open source there's an opportunity there. If you feel some could use a facelift then why not get involved - get in touch with the developer, be polite and constructive obviously, and i'm sure they would love the feedback and any help you can give to make their app better. Even an hour of your time looking for royalty free icons (or create them yourself if you got the skills) is an hour given back to the developer for working on other stuff.. or just giving some free time back to catch a movie or see their family for a change :P

I'm not sure which apps you find the most ugly, but you might want to start with this application

tswindell | # 18 | 2011-02-23, 23:28 | Report

I try and make my stuff look reasonible: http://stage.rubyx.co.uk/columbus/index.html & http://stage.rubyx.co.uk/xbox360-med...208-174011.png

mishmich | # 19 | 2011-02-23, 23:29 | Report

It uses less power? I hadn't noticed. Black is great. It was good enough for terminals for decades. Perversely, the X terminal defaults to white.

Mish.

uvatbc | # 20 | 2011-02-23, 23:31 | Report

Hey that second one is mind blowing. I wish I had those skillz!