[Rhythmbox-devel] GUI mockup... let's get this sorted once and for all

[Gareth Murphy <garethmurphy1 eircom net>]

I've been using Linux for just over a year now, and in this time I've
been using Rhythmbox a LOT. I personally feel that the feature list is
growing and looking really promising, but the GUI situation has possibly
been the most agitating thing whilst following the projects development.

It's an inarguable fact that the user interface has a lot to do with how
a user reacts to an application, from the icons to the general layout of
things... it all effects how the user feels when using your app. 

It's no great secret that Banshee has grown massively in popularity over
the last few weeks, and I believe that some of the credit simply has to
go to the 'look & feel'... it uses Tango styled icons, has a nice logo
designed by the man himself, Jimmac, and has some other cosmetic touches
like Album art etc. Simply put, it's a pleasure to look at. Feature wise
it's still no greater than Rhythmbox.

I just think that it's about time we started a real effort on making it
look good and marketing it, for example getting that website sorted!

I've taken some time to create a simple mockup in the Gimp to show you
what I mean. You'll find it at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gazam/116038333/ and you can see, by
hovering over the image there, that I've put some notes on the image
about stuff I've changed in it. Once you've read them, click on the 'all
sizes' link above it to see it at it's proper scale to get a better
look. 

I'd like to see a properly organised effort to get this issue sorted out
once and for all, so tell me what you think and we can take it from
there. I also wouldn't mind helping out with the website (time
permitting of course) as I know xHTML, CSS and I'm not too shabby with
creating graphics either ;)

P.S. looking forward to that plugin architecture... I know some Python
so I'd like to work on something there too.