Future trends in skins

Published on February 18, 2004 By Sput In WinCustomize Talk

It strikes me that as screen resolutions increase we are faced with a choice.

a) design things at the same size (in pixels) and hence have everything get smaller and smaller as resolution increases

design things bigger (within reason!) so that they can take advantage of increase detail whilst staying approximately the same final size to the user.

At present, it seems that most people (me included) are happy to luxuriate in the increased desktop realestate liberated by ever shrinking icons/window borders etc...BUT, what about when screens become 4000x3000 pixels?

Current skin/icon designs at that resolution on even a 19" screen (assuming that to be common in the future) would render even a 128x128 pixel icon at less than 1/2 an inch (1.23cm) across - and more worryingly, a 4 pixel window frame border at just 0.4 mm!

There will undoubtedly be changes to the way the GUI works in that time (Longhorn developments regarding use of Direct3D and emphasis of vector based interface designs noted), but is there milage in designing skins that will take advantage of these developments?

It would mean windows that are incredibly "chunky" looking on a current display @ 1024x768, or even 1400x1050 - but these designs will look great as technology catches up

Whatcha think?

Comments (Page 3)

GreatSilverWyrm

on Feb 19, 2004

I think you're right in that things will stay about the same general size, but increase greatly in detail..

I also think, or hope at least, that skins will become more organic, freeform. More tuned to the way people use their computers, move away from the box..

Just because the screen is square, doesn't mean the GUI has to be.

DesignCaddy

on Feb 20, 2004

i'm just lurking. but i wanted to say this is quite the interesting discussion, even though i believe its irrelevent.

the skins will have to evolve to be 'larger' if the standard resolution becomes so intense. i still see 15 to 17in monitors being the home standard for many years to come, regardless if we're using crt's, flat screens, or holigraphic projections. if the res goes high and the screen stats small, the gui's will have to be enlarged to compensate or else it just won't be readable. but it does comes down to user preference. some people like slim bars and are happy with anything being scaled down minimalist. others like really thick bars. so some people may not change or may make 'high res' varients of their work. looking at the change between windows 98 and now, of course skinning will compensate.

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