Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

Hopefully they've done, or will do, user testing on this. I know that Canola uses the same method to close the dialogs that slide in from the right-hand side, and it took me a few seconds to guess how to dismiss those the first time I saw them.
Well a black background is the iPhone style, isn't it, now copied by several other handhelds. I'm not saying it's good, but I can see why they've picked it.

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

This isn't black, this is some dark olive with slightly less dark olive decorations/texts. The iPhone may have a black background, but it has way more contrast in its gui elements.

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

Are the new devices going to be finger-only, i.e. not come with a stylus? I ask because http://maemo.org/development/sdks/ma...lpha_overview/ says that the stylus keyboard has been removed, and the window/app close button is much larger than before.

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

I can't speak to what'll be bundled with the hardware, but the touchscreen is resistive, so there's no reason you couldn't use a stylus.

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

This is theme is for the SDK only and if you don't like it file bugs to improve it. Or come up with alternative themes when Urho is done with the Theme Maker (soon, apparently).

About the click out of the dialog to Cancel, as a user nobody told me about it and I don't remember about the first time, so I guess it was not a traumatic change. I didn't even notice there are no Cancel buttons anymore! :)

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

wasn't there an announcement that fremantle would have an improved UI? *sigh*

will diablo run on the maemo 5 "lead device"? :p

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

Your question probably is "can a diablo theme be run under fremantle" which is likely a "yes". Why shouldn't you be able to replace the hacked hildon core libs with some that look like diablo?

On the other hand: The fact that some colors in an alpha are ugly doesn't mean this will stay that way. Why should Nokia publish these early versions if they don't intend to listen to threads like this one?

I indeed like their basic idea of cleaning of the dialog boxes to make more space for content. Perhaps they just need some hints.

E.g. the "where's my close button" problem can easily be solved by adding some small "X"-Shaped icon to the dialog title bar. Most users are familiar with the meaning of an (X) icon in the upper right corner of their dialogs title bar. I think i'll file a bug report to suggest just this ...

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

as a user I would expect the presence of a big fat X in the top right to also act as a close button for a dialog.

(since you also seem to be using that location for "back" as well the user will expect it soon enough)

I can't test at the moment but if you click the big X (which is actually for the test form and not the dialog) does the dialog close and then the test form?

if so, thats a major problem for the UI, if not its still disconcerting because the user will close the dialog using the artifact of UI from behind.

Personally I prefer giving people a clear way to (cancel/close/dismiss/do nothing) on actual dialogs, that way there is none of this. (at the same time I am even more guilty because I can make screens with no ui at all :p)

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

UI "quality" is a highly subjective area, and, really, the only real way to judge a UIs effectiveness is to use it on the device it's intended for. The only way to do that is to work at Nokia. So, something makes me think the folks there with devices working on the UI probably have a better picture of how well it actually works than us. ;)

The Diablo "UI" was already ported to Fremantle (please see the pre-alpha SDKs and Mer).

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released
 

How about the other way? Can someone tar up an armel rootfs of the SDK (just the libraries, etc) so I can see if we can get some Fremantle GUI on current devices? Or is that what the good folks at Mer are doing right now?

I'm not entirely clear about this yet -- Does the current UI already require OpenGL ES to render?