On 30/07/2007, at 10:23 AM, James Greenidge wrote:
Yvan Barthélemy wrote:I has a discussion with Bernhard Dippold and Florent Effenberger about a contest that I want to organize in order to promote OpenOffice.org to the Mac community.I would like to have your opinion about the current draft. The title of the contest might be :"Design the best interface mockup ever for Aqua version of OpenOffice.org"Gee, I really don't understand what they're asking. If they're asking what would best impress a newbie to "Switch" or try out Mac OOo, I think a straightforward approach always beats glitz and B.S.:1. Match or surpass looks/function features of the standard bearer, MS Office/Word.
We really need to get away from copying any of the Microsoft look. It's too restrictive, and not of high quality.
2. Match or surpass looks/function of iWorks/AppleWorks.
Pages and Keynote (iWork). AppleWorks isn't current anymore, although it still has its devotées.
No need to reinvent the wheel. I think obliging those two prerequisites would draw interest very well. Now, if you're talking about doing some new whiz-bang distinctive GUI thing for Mac OOo, I might suggest taking a time tunnel look at Kaleidoscope in OS-9. Imagine tailor-making -- personalizing -- the Mac OOo interface like that, where you can even shift menus and tabs around and create custom icons for them as well. Mac ego aside, I DON'T think Mac OOo should be restrained by PC OOo's 'requirements' in form or function. Like who's restraining who here? It's like PC OOo having its cake and eating it too at the expense of degradging the Mac's inherent capabilities in Mac OOo to me.
I agree about aiming for something like Kaleidoscope. Configurability and non-clutter will win us users. A single, integrated interface is also more effective. (PathFinder also has some good features in that regard.)
I've learned to appreciate good GUI design since I've had to deal with brain damage. Sharp corners, clutter and sheer bad design actually cost the user brain cycles. OK, healthy people have them to spare, but they would probably prefer to use them on something else. ;)
Just my humble opinion. Still beta bugging pre-Alpha.
My humble appreciation of your humble opinion. ;)from Clytie (vi-VN, Vietnamese free-software translation team / nhóm Việt hóa phần mềm tự do)
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/vi-VN
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