Okay, this might be tricky given the fact that we use Windows Installer (MSI and such), but I kinda find the LibreOffice installer to be a little plain looking, and given that it seems like we're trying to distance ourselves from the look of "that other free office suite", I think it could use a new paint job.
Note, when I say new paintjob, I kinda mean a stylistic overhaul. What I'm proposing, is that we re-design the wizard to break away from the old "Wizard 97" style of design that we're using now, and shift more towards the style of wizard layout that Windows Vista began to use (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511302.aspx and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511260.aspx for info) Now note, despite the fact that I am proposing this style of layout, we should still do it in a way that is backwards compatible with the previous versions of the OS too. Thankfully, the designers did make a graceful fallback for the classic theme (there is a regular titlebar, and the back button appears in the main window alongside the page heading), so I'm taking it to my advantage. After the installer launches (maybe we should find a way to lose that extraction "wrapper" somehow too in the process, or at least theme it to look like what we'll be doing here), the start screen would be a little different since Aero Wizards discourage "welcome" screens unless there is a lot of things to know on startup or there is a function on it. Thus, I have made it the "select installation type" screen in my mockup. I may also move down the buttons to squeeze in the LibreOffice logo in between just so it doesn't look blank. (see http://ploader.net/files/0be576d5c9d6b605a7ec4188d77f2d1c.png) I'm working on mockups for the other screens, but they would be along this line (take the file association screen): http://ploader.net/files/a1a2f2c4a97eb33da1aec77d4a9035eb.png Notice the slightly different wording, the now-active back button, and the general ideas here. I wanna keep most of the workflow intact, but update it to a more clear and concise look. Now, when we actually theme this, it wouldn't look like a typical Aero wizard, it would have a design similar to our web design style (the triangle motif, plain looking buttons, etc), and it would just use a normal window frame (not the "enlarged" one real implementations use) I am working on more mockups for this right now, so don't worry, you will get a full workflow of this soon. And, in response to concerns that a installer this glitzy would be unprofessional, do note that this is gonna be based off HIG's that Microsoft has put out for what everyone should begin to be using, and that even worse, the Office 2010 installer doesn't follow a single word of this. ~Shawn -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to design+h...@libreoffice.org List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/www/design/ *** All posts to this list are publicly archived for eternity ***