Ver 3 Weaker graphic design distracts

[Ciaran P. A. Connelly]

Personally, I couldn't disagree more.

I find the checkboxes more appropriate for typographical documents (as 
they are neither forms on a web page nor system controls), and I find 
the selection ring (especially with the expand collapse animation) to 
be must easier to follow/read than the entire-row highlighting that 
used to occur in OO2.  (you yourself say that pure 
verticals/horizontals are harsher on the retina, well the rounded 
corners of the selection oval make selection all the less jarring)

The toolbar icons I find to be much more intuitive and communicative 
about what they do than their equivalents in 002, though perhaps a 
grey-scale or almost grey-scale version (ala Graphite in OmniWeb) would 
be a good compromise solution for those finding the current icons 
"garish."

Overall, OO3 just looks and feels more like a real, professional 
application rather than merely an NSTable on steroids.  (PS - that's 
not meant to belittle OO2 - it got me through law school and was an 
excellent application - it's just that I think OO3 is a significant 
improvement!)

-cpac


On Jan 4, 2005, at 6:04 AM, Robin Trew wrote:

>
> The graphic "feel" of Ver 3 has, oddly become  *weaker* than in Ver 2
> 		This discourages me from wanting to actually buy it and work in it.
> 		I may stick with the more sophisticated and less distracting "look" 
> of Ver 2
>
>
> 		DETAILS		
>
> 		Ver 2 provide a comfortable working environment - few redundant 
> contrast edges to distract the brain.
> 		One of the great strengths of  Ver 2 is that its  own own apparatus 
> of controls and icons is in a well-muted background visual plane,
> 		allowing the user to concentrate on their own work in the visual 
> foreground
>
> 		Ver 3 (current Beta) however, suddenly feels a little noisy and 
> garish, too distracting too allow concentration on one's own task.
> 		(Has there been a shift in the balance of forces / skills in your 
> organisation ?)
>
> 			In particular:
>
> 				- A strongly contrasting, and unnecessarily distracting blue focus 
> line has appeared around the topic of the active note
>
> 				- The curve at the corners of the above creates additional and 
> redundant visual stimulus
> 					(the Ver 2 straight lines do not shout visually)
>
> 				- The excellent muted icons (indentations etc) of Ver 2 have been 
> replaced by icons with more strident visual contrasts
>
> 				- The column titles, both bolded and underlined, with the edges of 
> the pixels all bleeding into each other,
> 					look suddenly unprofessional and unfinished, whereas they looked 
> professional and discreet before
> 				
> 				- The new application icon uses cruder contrasts and inevitably 
> looks cheaper than the previous app icon.
>
> 				- Finallly , the checkbox
>
> 	Ver 2 uses a standard 3D aqua checkbox, with fairly gradual (grey 
> transition) visual contrast at the edges
> 	which does not over-excite (or "shout" at) the retina.
>
> 	Ver 3 introduces some distracting visual shouting by going back to a 
> solid pixel pure rectangle (the retina is particularly stimulated pure
> 	horizontals and verticals)
> 	If you really want to do this then perhaps you should at least mute 
> the shouting down to grey pixels rather
> 	than using a full volume black against white contrast.
>
> 	We all have limited processing capacity (me particularly :-), and 
> every little bit of distraction, visual or otherwise,
> 	cuts into the quality of attention that we can bring to our work.
>
> 	A pity to turn an excellent app into a strident and distracting 
> working environment
> 	which risks reminding potential buyers that Ver 2 of any app is often 
> the best ...
>
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