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• Launchpad Entry: hardy-theme

• Packages affected:

Summary

Creating a new theme from the top down for the next LTS cycle.

Release Note

Our target audience will be drawn to ubuntu because of the fresh bling and simple beauty of the OS. Through this we can fix bug#1

Rationale

Every LTS cycle should represent a concise design direction which evolves over the course of the cycle in a well planned and managed way.

Use Cases

Klaus loves pretty things, they make him smile.

Design

The color palette, design principles and examples will be explained in the Artwork teams wiki page (tbd)

Implementation

In order to complete this work we need to address the following:

Name

Every good theme needs a good name. The name Human was very descriptive although we made very little out of it. Finding a good name to explain the look and describing it well will make things easier.

Process

Defining a process for approval of the theme elements is very important and will solve problems later. All of this needs to be as open as possible.

Timeline

Accompanying the process for approval is a strict timeline to be followed to ensure there is ample time for testing and tweaking for cohesiveness and completeness. As this is an evolving process we will need to determine which pieces need to be done when and how to keep everything in line not only over the course of one release but over several releases.

UI Changes

As we create the theme this will have an impact on other parts (like compiz effects, etc). All of this should be inline and use the same design principles.

Code Changes

Minor pieces of code will need to changed. We need to find people able to help with this.

Test/Demo Plan

This need not be added or completed until the specification is nearing beta.

Outstanding Issues

We need to define a plan which is not only for Hardy but can also evolve over the course of the entire LTS cycle.

BoF agenda and discussion

Proposed Theme: EARTH Many of the themes on other distros are blue with a few green (Mint/SUSE). I suggest TEAL accented with blue and green. It would be a little different than the the other distros. It could consist of the gradient swirls that are popular.

To make the desktop image more interesting a map image could be generated with green swirls on land and blue swirls representing the water bodies. The orientations could be diagonal turned on its side, oblique perspective, or even mirrored. For example I'm on the Oregon coast so a map generated for me might span from Baja, Mexico on the left to Vancouver Island on the right. The desktop background would be interesting and relevant to each user. The emphases should be on the esthetics and useablity rather than map accuracy or detail. These images could be made by artists (a couple of images per continent) or generated by a program.

Small earth theme accents could be added to a few of the icons: Leafs, blades of grass, fruit, nuts, trees (oak, pine & palm), mountain peak, snow flake, water drop, waterfall, ladybug, bird. fish.

Earth like Human is a non tech universal theme.

Alternate EARTH Transition Theme Another approach is to start with the HUMAN brown theme and add blues and greens to it with each release. The theme will grow with each release much like a plant and Ubuntu. The above theme could then be used for the following LTS 10.4? theme.

I've noticed the layout for Ubuntu hasn't really changed since Warty, and is staying with the default Gnome standard. Maybe time could also be invested in reconsidering all aspects of the desktop with the hope of providing a more useful and intuitive default layout. Warty was, in my eyes, a proof of concept, a mk.1 just to make sure the thing compiles and as a standard base to build off of. I certainly do not think that the current UI is the best it can be and simply changing the theme without looking at the UI as a whole is a bit pointless.

First let me start off by saying I am not sure where to place my comments and if I have chosen incorrectly I apologize.

It appears that there is two major choices to the design that should be considered early. First the colors. This will define the overall feel and give direction to what the background should/could be. The second important choice is if the default GNOME layout will be kept.

For what it is worth I believe the default layout while lacking spunk should remain. It offers users a standardized interface that they can customize easily with the help of sites like gnome-look.org. This flexibility could easily be lost if a custom GNOME layout is used.

For the colors I like the concept of using EARTH as a metaphor(?). One idea I would love to see considered is the use of a darker window border. I say this because most of the people I know currently using GNOME use some sort of dark window border. I also see many XP users utilizing the Zune or Royal Noir theme. In both cases it is typically just the window borders that are dark. I also like the suggestion of using green. It is often a color used to represent earth and off the top of my head I cannot think of another distro or OS utilizing it as a primary color. The danger here is it may look odd with the larger Ubuntu theme of oranges and red.

Anyways I hope that I may contribute to this project and look forward to seeing the results.

PROPOSAL: Diverse Multiple Themes Chosen During Installation

If you really want to take 8.04 to a different level when it comes to themes, you need to think outside the box a little bit.

For instance, I think it would be nice to demonstrate a little more variety of what is possible by including more diverse themes with the initial install. The current selection of default included themes are pretty much a bunch of "also-rans." Several themes could be created (with appropriate wallpapers linked) that change the entire look DRASTICALLY. Themes included shouldn't just be a little smoother, or slightly different buttons. I'm talking about skinned panels using some wrapping PNG's (Flames? Spikes? Wildflowers? Hearts? Chains? Abstract?) Do an "earth" based one, yes, but also do one gothic, one gaudy/bling, one classic, one thats classy, one thats silly, one that's borderline insane. One black, one white, one green, etc, etc.

These themes should include window dressing, panel colors/skin, wallpaper, cursor, icons, and controls as well as Login theme usplash and grub backround. Pretty much everything that can be changed.

You should have theme selection included in the installation process via thumbnails. After installation, your theme will be active when you boot into your newly installed system for the first time.

Stop trying to make one desktop "look" work for all users, when you know that as soon as they figure out how, they're just going to change it anyway.

In this way, you could have a theme contest with various theme genres and have several winning themes, with a bland unassuming non-threatening theme used for the live session. I wouldn't make all the themes available during the Live session as it's wasteful of RAM during a time when it's crucial to have as much free as possible.

Make the terminal partially transparent by default, just for the looks. Offer to turn off transparency via a tooltip.

That's a big problem for new users... the lack of foreknowledge of what features exist and how they are used.

Having some tooltip help features for new users would alleviate this. Power users should be able to disable the "training wheels" in a few clicks, or even preemptively during install, but for the clueless, it can make a big difference in the amount of time it takes to become "at home" with the change to a new OS.

A tooltip could advise users that they can add applets to the panels, or change the theme. A message explaining screensaver options would be handy the first time the screensaver comes up. A tooltip about the Add/Remove feature would be handy maybe the 10th time you open up the main menu. And a tooltip for Synaptic would be handy maybe the third or fourth time that you used Add/Remove. After you've viewed 50 pictures with Eye of Gnome, give some information about GIMP. Some things are obvious, yes? Have the obvious things lead to the not-so-obvious. Natural progression of learning curve.

First time a new user tries to open a file with .exe extension, offer to install wine, after explaining what it is, and what its limitations are.

Also, "Live Help" button to bring up the #ubuntu irc channel in irssi would be a nice default layout addition...

Ubuntu is by far the friendliest of Linux distros, but it can be even more friendly.

I've heard it said that the best distro of Linux for new users to try is the distro their friend recommends, because that means they will have help. But there will be a lot of people trying this who don't have any Linux user friends. I'm talking about people who just heard by word of mouth and got fed up with their old setup, or they're very brave, or just naturally curious. The more at home we can make people feel from the very start, the less anxiety they will have. And anxiety is conversely proportionate to quality of the experience.

I second keeping the current default gnome layout. Having the desktop layout mostly the same from one version to the next helps give a general feeling of stability. When I upgraded to Gutsy, I had a heck of a time figuring out where to change my theme and cursors. It took a while to realize they had been married together under Appearance. Either I missed the changelog or there wasn't one.

• I realize all of these ideas don't belong in here. Can't help it. Don't know where they're supposed to go.

The theme should be ,Odly attractive, In the next release we should go with a very different scheme. lets try to put an end to gradients, users are getting bored of the shine.

Im not happy with the earth theme as it doesnt bring the ubuntu feel into it. we could try a more creative theme.

Instead of creating a dozen different themes, why not create a few unique themes with drastic changes. I suggest the user can select the theme when the install is complete and reboots, this way he can see the theme practically.

we could also merge the taskbars into one at the top. the reason i say this is that most old computers that use ubuntu have resolutions of 800 x 600

I think there should be themes available for people who use other systems to make them feel at home. There are the old classic themes that look like BeOS, XP, or whatever, but Ubuntu doesn't come with anything that looks like newer systems (like Leopard or Vista). I'm not saying spend a lot of time on it, but 2 themes that borrow design cues from Leopard and Vista out of the box would be nice.

Faux Vista could be called something like "Mira" or some other play on words. Should have transparent borders and rounded edges with close-minimize buttons on right. Nothing to special, should be able to be assembled from already available stuff on Gnome-Look

Faux Leopard could be called something like "Pussy Cat" or whatever. Should have gray rounded borders, rounded white drop downs, minimize-close buttons on the left.

It would be nice if these were vector art Cairo themes as well. Both should be usable at 800x600 as mentioned above so cornballs that use them can show their friends how hot their desktop looks even though they're running old hardware.

Results from UDS

Ubuntu

• Radically changed lots of stuff for this long term release
• Define the process:
  • Definition of the color palette in advance
• Start working on changes a lot earlier in the process to make sure any changes do not "break" other parts
• Find coders to handle the parts that artists either do not know or are not willing to learn
• Big Issue: Change the Name of the Theme
  • Either change the name to something like "Human 3.0" or...
• Everything we want to change:
  • Installer Picture
  • Usplash -- Traditionally Installer Picture and Usplash have used the same image
    • These two will be changed in Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Edubuntu
  • GDM

    • GDM Face Browser Spec, https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/hardy-gdm

  • Wallpaper
  • Application Splash
    • Keep as little as possible

    • GIMP and OpenOffice

    • Use the same in the Example Look section
  • GTK+ -- Work with a coder (Andrea Cimitan, Murrine-author) on this
  • Compiz Effects
  • Metacity
  • Installer
    • Show some form of graphics during the install phase, but do not think this is going to happen in this release cycle
  • Cursor Theme
    • Across Kubuntu,Edubuntu and Ubuntu
• Look at Tango Guidelines
• Color Palette
• Design
• Target Audience
  • Needs true defintion, current Target is "Everybody", working on defining who it will be
  • Will follow with the next "marketing" goal of 8.04 LTS
• WINE
• WUBI

• QT/KDE applications: I'd suggest to create a qt-theme similar to the GTK+ one to have a completely uniform desktop (I mean something like QtCurve, but GNOME based)

Kubuntu

• Minor Changes, distinct important changes due to KDE4 comming out
• Changing the Desktop Splash
  • Discussing whether or not to use it, but this is a technical discussion and not an artwork/theme issue
• Amarok Theme
  • Will not change between KDE3 and KDE4
  • Need to change theme for Hardy

Ubuntu Studio

• Working with the Studio theme, how can we use all the different pieces and parts

Edubuntu

Xubuntu

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