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The end of the nice GTK button

blog.brixit.nl

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Re: The end of the nice GTK button

#271

Post by grishka »

RachelF wrote: post #124
SkeuomorphicBee wrote: post #15

I agree 100% with the author, the old GTK button was gorgeous, it will be missed. > I have had to explain to people tons of times that the random word in the UI somewhere in an application is actually a button they can press to invoke an action. This is one of my biggest complaints with the super flat modern designs. Many widgets lost their skeuomorphic depth, which encoded a lot if visual information (the clickabili…

> I have had to explain to people tons of times that the random word in the UI somewhere in an application is actually a button they can press to invoke an action. Exactly this. I often help others use computers and phones. In the old days it was easy to see what could be clicked. Now input and output look the same. It makes it harder to use. In many ways it is a victory of style over substance - UI's are now designe…

Yeah I keep saying that modern UIs are designed to be looked at and enjoyed like museum art pieces, not to be actually used. They look nice-ish when static, but they're unbearable in real use.

Re: The end of the nice GTK button

#272

Post by nojs »

Flow wrote: post #270

I really miss a consistent user experience. A core idea that I as a user can rely on to predict how a new app will work. I was in awe when I discovered as a kid that user interface were a research area. Things like Fitt's Law and so on. It was not just opinion. Today I get the feeling it's mostly just opinion. Either the designer's opinion or the wish to copy the look of something. Whenever I see a hamburger menu I s…

> Whenever I see a hamburger menu I silently think "Here someone has given up"

Can you explain what you don’t like about hamburger menus?

Re: The end of the nice GTK button

#273

Post by wutbrodo »

kiwijamo wrote: post #203
dmitrygr wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sometimes even cli tools go away. eg: ifconfig

They still exist on BSD! But yes it has gone away on Linux.

Huh Til that ifconfig is deprecated. I still use it periodically, but my work laptop is on 18.04

Re: The end of the nice GTK button

#274

Post by phendrenad2 »

phkahler wrote: post #71
phendrenad2 wrote: post #26

You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. (You can't break the back of modularity-induced fragmentation and make a consistent GUI without making a few people unhappy with the UI design that the majority chose). That is Gnome. Gnome has become a top-down project that values consistency/coherency over modularity/theming. It's an extreme, and I suspect that they went too far, but with it comes a number of…

>> You can't break the back of modularity-induced fragmentation and make a consistent GUI without making a few people unhappy with the UI design that the majority chose Not sure what that even means. The majority are not the Gnome developers, and many users will just adapt to whatever they're fed, even if it's worse. >> That is Gnome. Gnome has become a top-down project that values consistency/coherency over modulari…

What you're not understanding is, just because something seems nonsensical to you doesn't mean that the majority of users don't find it perfectly reasonable. But you've already waved that possibility away by saying that most users will take whatever they're given, so I don't suppose you'll consider it.

Re: The end of the nice GTK button

#275

Post by chillfox »

azinman2 wrote: post #250
chillfox wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wut... what, when how??? I love ElementaryOS, it's great, everything just works, I didn't have to tweak a single thing or mess with drivers earlier this year when I installed it on a new laptop that even Mint was having issues with. Going off to read that link now.

Funny, I tried it last year and keep getting kernel panics. That’s the thing that’s hard about Linux — a million different hardware configurations.

yep, If you have troublesome hardware then I find the fastest solution is to just cycle through the top 10 distros to see if it works on any of them. If it does then great, you can either stop there or use it as a "guide" for how to get your favorite distro working.

Re: The end of the nice GTK button

#276

Post by notatoad »

RachelF wrote: post #124
SkeuomorphicBee wrote: post #15

I agree 100% with the author, the old GTK button was gorgeous, it will be missed. > I have had to explain to people tons of times that the random word in the UI somewhere in an application is actually a button they can press to invoke an action. This is one of my biggest complaints with the super flat modern designs. Many widgets lost their skeuomorphic depth, which encoded a lot if visual information (the clickabili…

> I have had to explain to people tons of times that the random word in the UI somewhere in an application is actually a button they can press to invoke an action. Exactly this. I often help others use computers and phones. In the old days it was easy to see what could be clicked. Now input and output look the same. It makes it harder to use. In many ways it is a victory of style over substance - UI's are now designe…

i don't think flat design is really a question of style over substance. flat design has been popularized because designers like it, but designers like it because it's easy.

a flat element can be re-coloured without having to worry you've gotten the shadows correct on the new color. you can put two buttons beside each other without worrying that one appears to have more depth than the other. we make things flat because we're lazy, not because we think it looks good. a culture of lazy designers has convinced people it looks good, so we can continue being lazy.

Re: The end of the nice GTK button

#277

Post by smegger001 »

userbinator wrote: post #240
cout wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you really want to go against the grain, may I suggest radial menus, which allow the user to muscle-memory through menu selections: https://bindpose.com/custom-marking-menu-maya-python/

Interesting concept, but I would add keyboard shortcuts (underlined items) to the menu to make it more of a reminder than be forced to use the mouse all the time.

That was originally part of the IBM Common User Access style guide 80/90s, back when user interfaces for software valued function over form.

https://ia800200.us.archive.org/0/items/ibmsj2703E/ibmsj2703...

the figure on page 2 shows exactly what you are describing.

Re: The end of the nice GTK button

#278

Post by spoils19 »

Flow wrote: post #270

I really miss a consistent user experience. A core idea that I as a user can rely on to predict how a new app will work. I was in awe when I discovered as a kid that user interface were a research area. Things like Fitt's Law and so on. It was not just opinion. Today I get the feeling it's mostly just opinion. Either the designer's opinion or the wish to copy the look of something. Whenever I see a hamburger menu I s…

> I feel confused and disrespected as a user every day

I definitely agree with this, and I like your use of the word disrespect. I think the younger generation has encroached onto the sanctity of "the platform", if you will, and now us old timers are suffering. I time myself for my actions every day since I started noticing these despicable UI trends, and on average I waste about 2-3 hours a week trying to discover what behaviors work with flat UI applications.

But, take a natively designed application from Windows 2000, and it's extremely easy to understand and use! And, dare I say it, more pleasing to the eye than flashy, animated graphics of today.

Re: The end of the nice GTK button

#279

Post by linmob »

aidenn0 wrote: post #259
traverseda wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox does use GTK unfortunately.

But this was running under Plasma Mobile

The Plasma Mobile Maliit keyboard works with GTK apps on Manjaro Plasma Mobile.

There must be some way to make this work on other Plasma Mobile distributions.

Re: The end of the nice GTK button

#280

Post by toxik »

nojs wrote: post #272
Flow wrote: post #270

I really miss a consistent user experience. A core idea that I as a user can rely on to predict how a new app will work. I was in awe when I discovered as a kid that user interface were a research area. Things like Fitt's Law and so on. It was not just opinion. Today I get the feeling it's mostly just opinion. Either the designer's opinion or the wish to copy the look of something. Whenever I see a hamburger menu I s…

> Whenever I see a hamburger menu I silently think "Here someone has given up" Can you explain what you don’t like about hamburger menus?

It is the “etc” of UI design. It’s a cop out most of the time.
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