Re: RFC: UI design

[Jan Jokela <janjokela gmail com>]

On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 6:49 PM, Paul Davis <paul linuxaudiosystems com> wrote:

On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 1:44 PM, Jan Jokela <janjokela gmail com> wrote:

>. But for the App to
> be cohesive with the platform, the theme (the design and usability features
> of widgets) must remain identical.

this notion of cohesiveness with the platform doesn't seem to bother
the developers of most pro-apps. Ableton Live, probably the biggest
selling music app of the last 5 years, looks nothing like the OS X or
Windows platform. Cubase/Nuendo, ProTools (and other AVID products),
Digital Performer, Sonar ... these are not cohesive with the platform.
FCP(X) is, but only because it is an apple product that runs only on
OS X.

there is a place for cohesiveness with the platform: that place is for
platform-provided tools. things outside that domain: i'd just say give
it up and not worry about them (but try to make their developers'
lives easier anyway).

Even though Final Cut Pro is a good example maybe Pro applications as a category weren't the best.

Take iPhoto, Calendar and similar apps, even the ones not developed by Apple.

Many of them style widgets to a certain look and feel and most have a bunch of custom widgets. And I see this as  essential for making great applications even though it requires a rather fixed theme.

Jan.