This is the first draft of the GNOME 3.0 Art Roadmap. I made this because nobody was planning on doing so, and I cannot let GNOME 3.0 go by without some impressive changes. Now this roadmap contains some of my personal views and those of others that I’ve picked up. The document will probably change a lot, but it’s a first start, and I think we need a clear direction.
If you have suggestions please send an e-mail to the gnome-art mailing lists, or drop by on #gnome-art on irc.gnome.org. We will be discussing the document in the next art meeting that will take place in the beginning of October (the precise date and time will be announced here).
Update: The image now links to a PDF.
The smooth transition between login and desktop is a must.
About fonts, I think Deja Vu Sans Condenser may be what you are looking for. Give it a try.
Something that must definitively be fixed is multihead displays, for example using different backgrounds in different screens. Also gnome 3 must allowi the user to stretch the background image per monitor (same image in both monitors, but not across monitors).
Also fixing panels when more than one screen is used is a must.
Would it be possible to post a non-image based version of that? I find reading images annoying (not to mention accessibility issues, etc.)
Thanks.
For usability it would be better if you put it somewhere in html. It’s hard to get links from png.
Why is it in PNG format, and not an html page?
We”ll, you’re right. Many things should really improve.
But for the Website? I think its quite pleasant to look at, and the actual DESKTOP matters more to people than the website.
Interesting points. Thanks for pushing this one!
I don’t agree with all the details, but it’s a good start.
Looks good and I appreciate that you bring this to table now so discussion can be started early enough. But. One but: why is this a large bitmap instead of normal text? I don’t see any benefit here. Links for example.. I was not able to click web addresses you provided, nor was I able to copy-paste them. But anyway, good content and deadlines for example are presented in a very informative way.
Hey, nice initiative here.
* Yes I use patterns and love them, especially the clouds and stars ones though I change the colors from time to time. They feel like “real” wallpapers
* All your other points are FTW, especially narrower fonts by default!
Now, GNOME desperately needs an high level, all encompassing redesign which takes into account all the major, always visible components like nautilus, the panel and window manager borders which IMO should really be handled client side[1][2].
[1] http://blogs.gnome.org/metacity/2008/08/10/we-all-scream-for-nice-themes/
[2] http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2008/08/11/icanhasedit/
Wow, that sounds good. It’s great to see this blog entry. I can only agree with every component in your draft.
But shouldn’t some things be doable for 2.26 already?
Chris: There is now a PDF version.
zerwas: We are definitely trying to get the changes in as soon as possible. There is a lot to do.
“a condensed type _kan_ show more”
Also, I don’t recall any Mango theme?
Anyway, we need more coding icons (read: something like CodeTango, but in a larger scale!)
Regarding wallpapers:
I was quite impressed with Microsoft’s sourcing of images for Vista. They simply went to Flickr, found images they liked, and negotiated rights with the photographers.
I think the Gnome community could follow a similar path. Look for nice images that are already CC-licensed, and ask the photographers if they’d be willing to relax their license for Gnome. Use the power of their community to help ours.
We’ll also want to ping Vlad Gerasimov over at http://www.vladstudio.com/ if there’s a contest. His wallpaper, Eos 2 ( http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaper/?519 ), is the default in KDE 4.
His blog entry on the subject, at http://www.vladstudio.com/blog/entry.php?16 , is also of note: “I think I’ll need to install Linux and KDE to see how it works.”
There’s a huge artistic community outside of the F/OSS sphere. If we tap them for content, we may win a bit of mindshare.
(It’d be even better if we then solicited their feedback on The GIMP, Inkscape, F-Spot, etc)
As Shaun recently stated on his blog, GNOME 3.0 without major new features is suicide.
At the same time, GNOME 3.0 should be a “Desktop Refresh” rather than a “Desktop Revolution.” (The former carries the meaning “The developers think this new way is better. Adapt or else.” That’s _not_ the type of changes we want to introduce.)
On that note, it’s not quite true that no one has done any work towards GNOME 3.0’s design. There’s a 5 day User Interface hackfest coming up before the GNOME Boston Summit, and one of the goals is to discuss new ideas for GNOME 3.0’s interface.
Getting back on topic, I agree with everything that you outlined in the PDF, but that’s really only a starting point. We likely have a year and a half until GNOME 3.0 will happen, and if the community can come up with and begin to draft several larger ideas by the hackfest, then there’s a fighting chance that at least one of them will happen.
I’m going with a notebook full of ideas (here’s one quick and hacky example). Even if you’re not going in person, show the community what you think.
Natan: I’d like to see more changes as well, but seeing the current timeframe, one and a half years is probably to short to get it all done. There should be enough developers that agree and are willing to work on the changes too. But I would also like to say: don’t fix what isn’t broken.
Your mockups have some very interesting ideas, but I don’t think there is a need for a side panel to make those possible.
Too bad I can’t be at the summit, I’d love to join the brainstorming.
Don’t underestimate developers. Collaboration is the key to getting a lot more out of devs.
Look at the notes on the second mockup. By using one standard applet framework, we can allow developers to focus on what matters instead of focusing on constantly rewriting applets for one dock/panel or another.
On that note, Universal Applets’ first stable release is scheduled for early next month. (There’s no real website yet, but there’s some information on launchpad , my blog, and the Screenlets forums.)
Oh, I hope that didn’t come over like I’m underestimating developers. Absolutely not. I’m just saying, this is OSS and we can’t force anyone to work on something, there should be concencus all around (developers, artists and user) to get something done.
But yeah, such a framework sounds like a great idea.
The pdf is very well done, nice work. One little nit:
s/kan/can/
Some really good ideas here - good work.
I think that a nice GDM update that would fade the wallpaper and panels in seamlessly (or have the panels slide down from the edges of the screen) would be great. Also, maybe the ability to have animation in GDM themes themselves.
More subtle animations in other parts of the UI would also be nice as well.
And I agree that the notification area should be redesigned, and the clock should look more like the one you did here ( http://www.bomahy.nl/hylke/blog/pretty-gnome-clock/ ). I’ve been using a style a bit like that for a while now - it’s far better than the default.
You’re right about the website too - it doesn’t look brilliant…
This sounds great. Really nice start, Hylke!
Hi Hylke,
everything sounds very interesting for me and I’m very intereseted to help you and be a part of this.
I’m a design student from germany and would like to help to create icons.
Maybe you get in contact with me, it would be very nice.
Best regards
Florian
That’s great Florian! Please drop by in the IRC channel. And read the wiki for things to do.
I like the goals. A smooth transition after a login would be very welcome also.
I hope that covers Compiz as well though.
Why do always people present 3.0 as “the end of the world if we do too big changes”.
What should be the aim is to incorporate the changes early (like the composite-manager in metacity (yes, I use it and not compiz)) and that way have something working ready testable, but not installed and/or turned on by default (maybe even be to the distros to not do it) before 3.0.
If done right there will be a tested rock stable minor leap between 2.28 and 3.0, but still it would feel like a big leap.
PDF is better than a PNG, but how about HTML…
Steven: just for you: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/access_onlinetools.html
What I ‘d like to see is a UI redesign that allows for more effective use of vertical space. Many monitors and devices are now widescreen, yet UIs consistently use the top and bottom for key components taking away from valuable screen space. This is an especially huge problem on netbook style devices, but is annoying even on some larger displays.
What I’d like to see is greater support for putting docks, panels, and applets from top to bottom in such a way that they’re actually usable rather than interfering with use by having text sideways and other similar issues.
Possibly this is problem where compositing is necessary for the solution. For example, if you put a “window list” in a vertical panel, instead of having really small unreadable program list, there could be a set of icons showing the window contents or program’s main icon which expand to show the window’s titlebar text when moused over.
Whatever the solution, a better design for vertical UI elements is a necessity.
Hi,
I support kraptor’s recommendation of DejaVu Sans Condensed which is really a very nice font.
Additionally I want to suggest Droid Sans (from the Google Android SDK), which is a bit less condensed (great readability in Nautilus’ Listview 33% (smallest size used in gnome afaik)) and has hinting information embedded, so that the font will work for people which prefer bytecode-hinting to auto-hinting.
Regarding clock, there is one usefult thing that’s missing. It’s the information about when (day and hour) the daylight saving time is going to take place.
Accidentaly I’ve found this in Vista (!?), but for poeople that live in a country with daylight savings this information would be really useful!
Once no pictures are not very clear to some innovations.
The GNOME team just released 2.24. I has new wallpapers, but switches Pidgin for one a crappy one which handles half the ones Pidgin supports. The file manager has more features, like thumbnails and tabs.
Sorry- I meant “It has” it that comment.
And I meant “is that” in that comment. Darn small keys!
For usability it would be better if you put it somewhere in html!
It’s hard to get links from png!
I think GNOME desperately needs an high level, all encompassing redesign which takes into account all the major..