is there a brainstorm on these issues? or do you guys even think its worth the energy? And if its so how do we approach it with out offending people?

i agree with you. but when it comes down to it money makes things possible. and most take shiny over substance. not saying thats a good enough reason at all.

Thanks champ.

woh!, I just found this whole thread, that seems to exist because my apps UI is ugly ;-)
and it's even longer than the thread about the app itself...

I have a couple of things to add, firstly I think someone pointed out a few pages back, my app is in *early* development. I only even pushed it to extras-testing to see how that process worked.

secondly... I started this project to learn python, and maemo development. At no point did I set out to write the best possible twitter app for the n900. I figured Mauku is streets ahead. The only reason I even picked twitter for my first app is because it feels like it's the default thing to do in learning any new environment these days.

thirdly... I have day job, and it keeps me crazily busy. that means I get a couple of hours an evening to work on this, and some time at weekends. So anything I work on has to be prioritised.

All that said, I'd love to make my application prettier. and I'm sure other people just starting out would love to make their app a sexy sleek thing that people like. but I literally have no idea how to do that.
It's all very well showing me a design of what it could look like, but as a developer what I want is example code that shows me how to achieve that. I'm not saying write it for me, but point me at a howto, or api or something that I can use to make the changes. most of the suggestions I've incorporated so far, came with code examples of how to do it. that makes it super easy for me in my limited time to take those suggestions and do something.
So my suggesiton, if you want to help newbie developers like myself make prettier UIs....write some useful instructions on how to do that in for a python app.

However... one final point. I'm am very concious that there are people that don't like how unintuative my app is. That's because I did not set out to write an intuative app, I set out to write an app that *I* want to use every day. For me that means common functions should not require lots of view transitions etc. One thing I don't like about mauku is having to come out of the timeline view and into an update view, to submit an update, then back again. So whilst I will take suggestions on UI improvements, and will gladly incorporate things that appeal to me... There may still come a point when the fact I'm developing something I want to use will conflict with UI standards or guidelines or whatever.
But we shall see.

Dude, I used yours as an example as it was the most recent one in my mind.

I jumped the gun on using yours as an example, as I did not know that it was more of a personal thing, or that it was in early stages etc. So my bad for that, I sincerely apologize.

It was the idea of the black background and flat buttons, and your app was the most recent one I was looking at (maemo-guru). I understand you're working on it and it's primarily for yourself, and I didn't mean to offend you at all!

I also like what you mentioned about the instructions, I have ZERO knowledge about python or developing for mobile, but I'm trying to learn myself so that in the future if I provide input its more than just a mock up that I whip up in photoshop, but some substantial, detailed information on how to achieve it.

Keep at it, good luck, and thanks for your effort!

Hope you guys figure out a way to make apps better and more use-able, if you do it will one of the attractions to Maemo, like other platforms which succeed.

If not people will just 'move on' like with symbian. Maemo UI looks beauituful, if the apps are there, then thats the "whole package"

joshua. you call bad looking apps buttafaces. how do you call white people. nothing racist provocing here. just... interested.. im kinda going to date a black girl see. and since once i go black i wont be able to go back or something like that i kinda think i should educate meself a little.

watched dave chapelle all afternoon for example.

[rant]
Off-topic, irrelavant, and in deed, despite the half-baked disclaimer very racially charged. Aside from applications and human beings being two entirely different things, I fail to see how whatever terminology joshua uses to refer to caucasians influences who you date, african american or not. Furthermore, I sincerely doubt that you watching david chapel qualifies as a lesson in cultural differences or socialogy. Particularly considering it satire.
[/rant]

Anyways, as for the original dilemma, I believe that problems could be solved if, as was previously suggested, developers start writing their code as to decouple the UI with the rest of the code. In this way, a developer can continue to add functionality to his program while leaving the art of design to the..well..designers.

For Qt (and its bindings) a developer needs only become familiar with Designer. For GTK+, glade serves the same purpose. The only real problem that then remains is deploying to Maemo. While Qt at least allows you to select the "Maemo" style, the Maemo-specific widgets are not yet integrated into it. While it is possilbe to add custom widgets into Designer, that is a bit time consuming. As far as I know, the same holds true for GTK+ and Glade.

I see. Right...

judging morality junky. now that is racism where i come from. calling someone that. where i come from the word racism isnt even in the dictionary. so if you feel offended, YOU are the *****hole. nevermind the question.

irrelevant, offtopic, slowchat, smalltalk, not right place to ask. okay sure, true. have a nice day