[Scummvm-devel] RFC: Touch interface for ScummVM

[Johannes Schickel]

On 07/26/2013 08:38 AM, Eugene Sandulenko wrote:
>
> I am working with a designer on new touch interface for ScummVM, and 
> here is the very first shot which she made after studying our current GUI.

Short general question on this matter: Is this supposed to replace our 
GUI or is it supposed to be only used on touchscreen devices?


Some basic feedback on the concept art you have provided:

* I am not much of a fan of the whole green usage. Our (current) GUI 
design was inspired by our website design. And on the website there is 
virtually no use of green (except for the logo, the "What Is ScummVM?" 
and "Screenshots" captions). Can we get some concept art where we have 
some color theme more close to our current one (i.e. mostly 
"yellowish"/orange backgrounds and red buttons)?

* The design itself reminds me a lot of Windows 8 (at least the 
screenshots I saw of it). It looks very modern age (i.e. very 
"smooth"/"clean", sketchy icons etc.). I am not sure whether that really 
fits us. For example, the icons in the concept bring in a big contrast 
to our logo, which doesn't follow this design. Our project is IMHO 
rather related to the retro-scene.

It would be cool if we could get some GUI design which matches that. For 
example, maybe having less "iconic"/"sketchy" (i.e. more colors) and 
more pixelated icons might be a cool aspect (just like Faster Than Light 
[1], for example, partly uses big pixelated fonts for some retro look). 
Also, in the concept screens the color use is mostly like a big area 
filled with one color. This also gives some "clean"/"modern" look. The 
menus of old games (like many LEC SCUMM games or Kyra) usually had some 
kind of border or 3D effect. See. for example, [2], [3] and [4]. It 
would be cool if we could get some kind of reference there to give us 
some more visual connection to our project.

If anything could be done in that regard, that would be really cool.

* I don't get when we use icons and when we use text. For example, in 
the launcher we have these icons for finding etc. in the top line. We 
also have the play etc. icon and text. In the options menu however we 
only use text. Wouldn't it make sense to use icons for visualization 
there too?

* What's this arrow to the right in the top line doing? I can't figure 
out what it's about.

* On the layout side: I think the issues with the launcher have been 
mentioned already. I agree that the horizontal layout might not fit 
really well with text. (I also think that pictures for the individual 
games are unrealistic because of copyright issues). The options menu 
looks really similar to our current, so I guess we do something good 
there? However, I wondered about this tab use we have: Is this really on 
style with touchscreen devices?

Greets,
Johannes

[1]: 
http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/FTL-Faster-Than-Light.jpg
[2]: 
https://lh3.ggpht.com/_FnWWvqIDAMw/SoDUhCorALI/AAAAAAAAABI/0NnCJS8YYls/s1600-h/kyra1-amiga-10.png
[3]: http://lordhoto.users.sourceforge.net/monkey_save.png
[4]: http://lordhoto.users.sourceforge.net/indy256_pause.png