2008-04-28, 22:26
So far, I've been keeping fairly private about my skin efforts, partly due to embarrassment of my lack of graphics skills. But, I do have a specific philosophy that I am following with my skin, which I'll describe here a little.
I've noticed that many LCARS implementations (almost all of the websites that I've seen as well) have useless animations and sound effects littered all over their interfaces. Take lcars.org.uk for example: first it makes you sit through an animated video that is loud and obtrusive, and really doesn't functionally do anything; then once you get to the main page of the site, there is no clear indication of which parts of it are links to click on, and the elements don't follow any sort of recognizable color scheme.
While this makes things look good when you stand back and glance at it, the result is not very easy to use for more than novelty factor. As Agathorn mentioned, LCARS usually doesn't work very well in reality. So my efforts thusfar have been aimed at making a skin which is first and foremost just as functionally useful as any other XBMC skin, and secondly follows LCARS conventions (such as they are).
Also of importance to me is avoiding useless graphics and animations. Every piece of text on my design actually gives you relevant information, and everything that looks like a button to activate is actually a button.
For colors, I'm using the color standards from lcarsdeveloper.com/ in the multidisplay category (oddly enough, they publish this color standard, but don't seem to follow it on their own site).
I've noticed that many LCARS implementations (almost all of the websites that I've seen as well) have useless animations and sound effects littered all over their interfaces. Take lcars.org.uk for example: first it makes you sit through an animated video that is loud and obtrusive, and really doesn't functionally do anything; then once you get to the main page of the site, there is no clear indication of which parts of it are links to click on, and the elements don't follow any sort of recognizable color scheme.
While this makes things look good when you stand back and glance at it, the result is not very easy to use for more than novelty factor. As Agathorn mentioned, LCARS usually doesn't work very well in reality. So my efforts thusfar have been aimed at making a skin which is first and foremost just as functionally useful as any other XBMC skin, and secondly follows LCARS conventions (such as they are).
Also of importance to me is avoiding useless graphics and animations. Every piece of text on my design actually gives you relevant information, and everything that looks like a button to activate is actually a button.
For colors, I'm using the color standards from lcarsdeveloper.com/ in the multidisplay category (oddly enough, they publish this color standard, but don't seem to follow it on their own site).