Kewl sucks

[vakkotaur]

I've been setting things up on icelandic and have run into an old complaint of mine: "Kewl" default skins or themes that try too hard to be coolkewl and end up being ugly or difficult to read.

There's nothing really wrong with skins and themes in and of themselves. But is it too much to ask that the default be the "boring" useful, readable look, or at least include that in the package so a person doesn't have to hunt for something good?

As jmaynard noted in this post I had a similar issue with Eterm (I'd have stuck with xterm had the scrollbar enabled in the configuration file actually appeared - that was the only reason I went to Eterm, to get the scrollbar). The default, at least on Ultima Linux, has a sort of side-lit brushed metal look. It's cool, er, kewl, but again the thing is not a piece of physical equipment that would look good in a brushed metal case. It's a terminal emulator program on a computer. I had to find a plain theme that makes it look like what it is. For the record, I settled on the crux theme, which is at least close to what it should be. The shot solid theme would be good without the colors. The menus aren't too bad, but the scrollbar, erf. I may end up going through the hassle of making my own "boring" theme to get what I really desire.

XMMS has a black stylized default look as if it's a piece of a component audio gear, with a blue vacuum fluorescent display. The problem with this is that it's no such thing; it's an application on a computer. I had to hunt for the HeliXMMS skin and install it to make XMMS look like what it is, an application on a computer. While HeliXMMS may seem unexciting, that's a feature. I want the music it plays, not the interface it has, to be exciting. "But it looks just like every other application!" Exactly. It should not violate the "principle of least surprise" by being jarringly different from other programs - it should get out my way and Just Work.

Fortunately most programs just use the system colors. I don't consider their designs lazy, but sensible. The user can set things as desired on system-wide basis and be done. Or rather, that's how it ought to be. If the user wants a specific program to look different, then a skin or theme can be applied. But the default should be that a program looks how a program is expected to look.

Comments

[yakko.livejournal.com]

If you wish to use xterm, you can put an alias in your .bashrc:

alias "xterm=xterm -sb -rightbar"

(drop the -rightbar if you want the scrollbar on the left)

You can also configure any launcher within XFCE to make it run xterm -sb -rightbar when you click on it.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Aha! Another solution. I'll try that tonight. It might save me the hassle of attempting graphic work, which is probably best for everybody.

[foolscap001.livejournal.com]

I'm a little puzzled. XMMS skins, like WinAmp skins, just about all keep the metaphor of the CD player, with the option of tacking on a graphic equalizer. Just about everybody's used both devices, and hence can pretty trivially figure out how to use a program with the same interface.

There is such a thing as going too far--the reason xmms et al. work as well as they do is that clicking a mouse is pushing a button. If someone were to try to write a mouse-driven driving or flight simulator, the result would be horrible. I don't understand how people can bear the game interfaces for simulated martial arts, which are necessarily counterintuitive and a pain to remember.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

For me, it's that Eterm and XMMS try to be "kewl" and instead of being better, just become harder to read. In the case of XMMS, I have to be able to easily see where to click and I'd rather not guess. Using HeliXMMS takes the guesswork out of things.

[foolscap001.livejournal.com]

That I can heartily agree with. Admittedly part of it may be that I'm getting old and my vitreous humor is getting stiff--but MANY xmms themes seem to have been designed with legibility very low on the priority list!