"How do I make my app look like...?"
 

Hi.

Since I've been working on the themeing tools, a lot of my work has been in telling developers which API to use (and how) to make things look the way they are supposed to. I have also spend a lot of time digging through layout guides and notifying developers when one of their margins was off by one pixel.

Basically, I am offering to do the same for your app. I am not (usually) going to make mockups or design entire interfaces for you (perhaps others are going to chime in), but I will point you in the general direction, i.e. which APIs to use, which basic layouts should be used in which situation, what workarounds to use, etc.

This is mainly intended as a quickstart for people who don't have the time to dig deep into the UI guidelines and API documentation, but want to make their application UI more consistent with system applications.

Please either post specific questions, or screenshots of your application view(s) with a clear description of what it's meant to do.

Re: "How do I make my app look like...?"
 

This is awesome contribution. Do you know both GTK+ and Qt?

Re: "How do I make my app look like...?"
 

Only Gtk/Hildon unfortunately. I would also suggest to wait a bit longer before using Qt, if you want to make your app look and feel like a standard application. At least until it has been properly documented. Of course you can always just use a QGraphicsView and implement all the behaviour from scratch. :) In that case I can still give general layout advice.

Re: "How do I make my app look like...?"
 

I thoguht I had a short route to the QT knowledge then! LOL. Hopefully the documentation fest in Barcelona should be producing some documentation on this - maybe you could help out with pointers to ensure the coverage is following best practice too?

Re: "How do I make my app look like...?"
 

Ok, let's start with a hard one :)

This app is not GTK+ neither follows most of the guidelines, is meant to be different, but still consistent with the system behavior. Waiting for your opinion :) .

http://neei.uevora.pt/~vdv/bluemaemo-039.png

http://neei.uevora.pt/~vdv/main-bluemaemo.png

All the graphics goodness was done by Wazd.

Re: "How do I make my app look like...?"
 

As far as custom applications go, that seems perfectly fine. :) The only thing I would suggest is to use a more descriptive title for the "Main Menu". If you can't think of anything, just also calling it "BlueMaemo" should be good enough.

Re: "How do I make my app look like...?"
 

or just add "BlueMaemo -" in front of "Main Menu" so you dont mix it up with the n900's default main menu :P

what kind of app is this anyway?
and while i see there is a "PS3Control", why is there no "Wii Control" or "360 Control"? :D

Re: "How do I make my app look like...?"
 

Some videos from the old version: http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...rch_type=&aq=f

Re: "How do I make my app look like...?"
 

Talking about application view titles is a bit difficult, since third party applications may want to add their own branding. I don't think that branding is necessary though, as the user is likely to only run one email program, etc. So even if it's not modest, using descriptive titles like "Email Accounts" should not lead to confusion.

If branding is wanted, there are no clear guidelines AFAIK, but the GNOME HIG guidelines recommend to put the application name _after_ the descriptive name, e.g. "Recipes - PyRecipe" rather than "PyRecipe - Recipes". I think that would be a good idea on Maemo as well. Personally, I think it would be better to keep this out of the titles and rather put branding in in forms of a logo on the startscreen for example.

Descriptive titles should mainly describe the objects being presented, so in case of the Bluetooth main menu, something like "Bluetooth Services" might work.