Proposal for a standards based UI
<https://core.fluendo.com/elisa/trac/ticket/351#Proposalforastandardsbas
edUI>
Because I'm making a case for a change in UI, I'm going to use apple to
illustrate a point.
The Ipod is one of the most feature limited mp3 players, however it is
the most popular. It was made popular by their interface, the touch
wheel. The Macintosh operating system sets itself apart, again, by its
interface. The IPhone is relying heavily on new interface technology to
succeed. Even Tivo has interface patents and understands the importance
of a good interface.
The feature set is fairly standard across dvr devices.
* Watch TV
* Timeshift TV
* Playback Recordings
* Play Music
* Show Pictures
What can set your device apart from the rest? More features are good,
but the users most significant needs are already being met by their
current solutions.
I suggest your 'killer app' will be an interface which is easily
customizable using standardized technology already in widespread use.
I am suggesting that you replace your proprietary interface with an
interface based on one of the widely used vector art libraries which are
already widely used and mature.
The possibilities of this are...
* Already widely accepted by ARTISTS
* Mature designing tools for quick development of UI skins
* Widely varied UI skins to suit any taste
* Ability to easily mimic any desired UI scheme, such as the
ITunes music player interface or Tivo's dvr interface
The specific technologies I am suggesting are
Adobe Flash, which:
*already has a linux implementation in Firefox
*has the most mature desiging tools
*is most widely adopted amongst designers
*requires licensing
or
SVG
*standardized
*feature similar to Flash
*has existing rendering implementations available under
open source
*less developed designing tools
Imagine a ferarri themed dvr, complete with swooping logos and engine
sounds, or a garden themed dvr with vines that grow and crawl around
text boxes Or a Windows Media Center/AppleTV/Tivo exact look alike
all these created and maintained by the community.
They could take pieces from one ui, mix and match with another to create
the ui that suits them best.
Finally, add a page into the default ui scheme where they can find and
download the ui schemes that others are using, ranked by popularity, and
allow them to download and install directly from that page and you'll
find have a TRULY UNIQUE FEATURE.
I originally posted this to the trac ticket system and got a response
from philn.
In it, he makes a good point why flash wouldn't be optimal, because it
can't use hardware acceleration and licensing costs, but this still
leaves SVG open for consideration.
I have posted this here in the hopes of spurring some conversation about
how it could be done ;)
