Here's my feedback. Sorry it's so long. I have quite a few comments about the tendency toward using various blue colors. I'm not entirely against that, but I think the blues should be consistent. That said, I'd rather have no color and be able to easily add color if desired. That way, the default style won't clash with anything around it. To put it another way, the default should be that you don't have to change anything to avoid an ugly UI.
Basic Button: I don't think that disabled buttons should change on hover. In fact, disabled Custom Buttons don't seem to change. They should at least be consistent (and, being disabled, I think they shouldn't react to the mouse at all). Date Picker: Nice. I don't mind the use of blue here, but it would be good to be able to easily customize that. The only thing I don't like is the dark gray bold text. It makes the text look hazy and harder to read than it needs to be. When other text on the page defaults to black, I think the dark gray looks out of place. Suggest Box: I agree with Chi Hoang about removing the rounded corners from at least the top of the suggestion box. Also, the positioning overlaps with the focus highlighting of the textbox in Safari and Chrome, at least on Mac OS X, and looks sloppy. Finally, something looks funny about the bold font to me (across all browsers on Mac OS X). For example, lowercase "a" does not look smooth. I know this isn't exactly the fault of GWT, but maybe a different font selection or a different way of achieving the font will make it look better... but I'm no expert with CSS fonts. Tree: I don't like the +/- icons at all. They're small, positioned slightly high relative to the text, and don't really need the blue coloring either. Also, they aren't consistent with Disclosure Panel (see comments below). Menu Bar: I think this style looks a little out of place. Like the Suggest Box, maybe the bottom should have rounded corners but be squared off at the top. Either way, I'm not a fan of the drop shadow. It's very inconsistent with other panels, especially Basic Popup and Dialog Box (which both look very nice). I also think the subtle color is out of place. The gray color and progression of the gradient used for buttons is much nicer and would be equally nice for menus. Stack Panel: This uses rounded corners on the top but is squared off at the bottom, which is again inconsistent with other panels. I don't like the rounded corners because, when you switch focus from "Mail" to "Filters", the straight gray line under "Mail" changes to a curved line and the background flows further down into the new space that the curve creates in the "Mail" tab. I'm not sure what the metaphor would be in the physical world, but something about that shift feels wrong. Finally, I don't think the blue gradient fits and is different from the blue used for Menu Bar. If you're insistent on using blues, they should at least be consistent among the components. Basic Text: Not bad, but the top border color is a little dark compared to the side/bottom... or maybe the side/bottom color is a little light. Rich Text uses #bbb instead of #ccc... maybe that would look better here. Rich Text: Nice. Good that the tool buttons are consistent with Basic Button. However, it looks like the blue gradient for the toolbar is the same as was used for Menu Bar, so my comments on that apply here, too. Disclosure Panel: I'm not sure the left border is necessary, and it looks funny because it doesn't line up with the tip of the disclosure arrow. However, I'm also not a fan of the disclosure arrow. I think it's a bit large (compare with Mac OS X Finder, which it seems to be heavily influenced by), the anti-aliasing isn't very crisp (which may actually be what's making it feel a little big), and it sits a little too high relative to the text. Also, I think it's odd that the same element isn't used for both Tree and Disclosure Panel. Tab Layout Panel: I like the concept much better than what we have now. Like others, though, I agree that the blue is a bit striking for the default style. Also, why no gradient? I actually like it without, but it isn't consistent with Menu Bar and Stack Panel. Also, I don't like the dark gray text on the active tab for the same reason as I don't like it for Date Picker... though I understand the reason for using bold text in this case. Cell Table: The headers look bad. Dark gray text (though slightly lighter than used in other places) and a blue shadow just doesn't work for me. At the very least, get rid of the shadow. Also, the buttons for the pager being circular buttons seem out of place. I'd rather something styled like the month switching buttons in Date Picker. Cell Browser: The arrows _very_ jagged. Also, the gray gradient for the selection seems much too dark and too steep of a gradient. Overall, I like many elements of the new theme, as well as the goal of not changing the DOM to achieve it. I would use this theme in any new applications and would try to retrofit any of my existing applications to use it as well. Thank you for giving some attention to this. -Brian On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 7:33 AM, Jeff Schwartz <[email protected]> wrote: > It is an improvement over previous attempts but can I make a suggestion? Why > not use a top graphic artist? Developers are great at layout but... well you > know where I'm going with this. > > Jeff > > On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 1:12 PM, John LaBanca <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> The GWT team is happy to (pre)announce that we will introduce a new, more >> modern CSS style theme in GWT 2.3 called "Clean". The new theme makes >> existing widgets look cleaner (more business-like) than the "standard" >> theme, and replaces the thick light blue borders with thin gray borders. We >> worked under the constraint that we would not modify the DOM structure of >> the existing widgets because we didn't want to break existing apps, so this >> new theme is purely a CSS overhaul. >> You can preview the new Clean style theme at the link below: >> http://gwt-showcase-clean.appspot.com/ >> Please let us know what you like and dislike about the new theme, and if >> you are interested in switching your app to it. Once we release the theme, >> it becomes very difficult to change it without affecting existing apps, so >> early feedback is helpful. >> Thanks, >> John LaBanca >> [email protected] >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Google Web Toolkit" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/google-web-toolkit?hl=en. > > > > -- > Jeff Schwartz > http://jefftschwartz.appspot.com/ > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Google Web Toolkit" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/google-web-toolkit?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Web Toolkit" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-web-toolkit?hl=en.
