mostly to rod... how soon until mokomakefile is updated?<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 8/20/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Sean Moss-Pultz</b> <<a href="mailto:sean@openmoko.com">sean@openmoko.com</a>> wrote:
</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Dear Community!<br><br>A top ten complaint that we have received is directed at our user
<br>interface. Many people feel like the current interface doesn't address<br>their exact needs. The organization is not "intuitive"; the colors are<br>not pleasing; there is no simple way to navigate "exactly" where you
<br>want, exactly when you want.<br><br>All Hardware has limits. All FOSS runs on hardware. Our current<br>interface (OM-2007) was drawn almost in it's entirety before our<br>designers had seen a working Neo. We had to live without an embedded
<br>stylus in the current version. And we had to learn to adapt to the lip<br>on the touch screen preventing us from using interface elements on the<br>edge of the display -- prime real estate regions. It was tough. We<br>
pressed on, faithful in our belief that our community would overcome<br>this limitation and begin exploring our new found oceans.<br><br>Personally, I feel that one of the most important areas for this project<br>is the development and exploration of the mobile user interface. The
<br>human-machine interface is the intersection of art and technology. Great<br>interfaces blend the visual with the technical. They balance simplicity<br>with complexity. Often times, I feel, really great new interfaces are
<br>not immediately intuitive. They are not instantly natural. In fact, I<br>would even argue this can be detrimental to improving interface design.<br>If an interface is to be superior it must be different. Therefore it<br>
can't be intuitive, that is, familiar. A better metric, perhaps, is the<br>learning time it takes until the interface feel's natural and intuitive.<br><br>Now that we have freed phones, everyone can contribute to an improved
<br>baseline interface. This is our collective challenge. Can we create<br>something truly different? Can we lead this incredibly important field?<br><br>Recently, emails have been pouring in, questioning the community's
<br>ability to make our user interface into something insanely great. While<br>some doubted, others stepped up. Thomas Wood, of our extended team (AKA:<br>OpenedHand), sent an email, entitled, "OpenMoko Design Suggestions"
<br>proposing -- in detail -- a redesigned interface concept that was<br>totally finger-based, optimized for GTK+ at 285ppi and, might I add,<br>very cool looking.<br><br>We went back to the drawing board with OpenedHand -- lead by their vast
<br>experience with GTK+, Matchbox, and mobile user interfaces -- and<br>redesigned an incredibly promising new interface.<br><br>Today I'm extremely excited to announce that everyone can find this,<br>right now, in our subversion repository, under the name
OM-2007.2. We<br>have already converted the following applications to the new framework:<br><br> * Dialer,<br> * Contacts,<br> * Today,<br> * Calculator,<br> * Feedreader<br><br>You can find an official snapshot here:
<br><br> <a href="http://buildhost.openmoko.org/snapshots/2007.08/">http://buildhost.openmoko.org/snapshots/2007.08/</a><br><br>The remaining applications and wiki specifications will be converted as<br>we approach phase 2. We have new style guidelines here:
<br><br> <a href="http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/GUI_Style_Guidelines">http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/GUI_Style_Guidelines</a><br><br>Here's a list of the major changes we've made with respect to this new<br>interface:
<br><br>1) We redesigned the user interface to better fit both the hardware<br>capability of the Neo and its physical form factor.<br><br>2) Performance was improved by streamlining the visual appearance, still<br>keeping it attractive, but at the same time lessening the resource
<br>impact. The current design allows for further future performance<br>improvements.<br><br>3) We vastly simplified the UI design and optimized the available screen<br>real estate and physical characteristics. This included the following:
<br><br> * Improved the interface clarity by taking into account the screen's<br> ultra-high DPI.<br> * Allowed functions to be accessible using less accurate finger<br> methods with requiring the stylus.<br>
* Placed common functions on easy access prominent buttons and<br> increased the button target areas.<br> * Reduced the number of objects on screen at once by splitting<br> applications into tabs and redesigned the application layout.
<br> * Added more natural interaction methods, such as finger scrolling.<br> * Removed some unnecessary elements such as the footer. Improved<br> usage and accessibility of existing ones.<br><br>3) Application management and navigation is now improved by with a
<br>completely rewritten today app and by using the Neo's hardware keys.<br><br>4) This is now an interface that uses the strengths of our toolkit so<br>that we can keep the extra framework and developer learning curve to a
<br>minimum.<br><br>Please keep in mind that this new interface is still, very much, a work<br>in progress. This is the earliest possible stage than we can release<br>something with enough of a framework for you all to start exploring.
<br>It's a huge advancement in balancing simplicity with it's digital<br>antagonist -- complexity.<br><br>Also, thanks to Jon Phillips help, we've finally got around to licensing<br>our artwork for this new interface under Creative Commons (CC BY-SA
3.0).<br><br>The introduction of OM-2007.2 goes hand in hand with merging the<br>OpenMoko OpenEmbedded overlay into the upstream repository<br>org.openembedded.dev. We are now based directly on the upstream metadata<br>found in OpenEmbedded and synchronized with the most recent developments.
<br><br>Here are a few examples many of you have requested:<br><br> * dbus 1.0.2<br> * glib 2.12.12<br> * Cairo 1.4.10<br> * Gtk+ 2.10.14<br> * GStreamer 0.10<br> * ...<br><br>Finally, we are very close to publishing our extensive software roadmap
<br>covering plans for adding more exciting software components and<br>detailing areas where you can get involved and help us reach our goal of<br>freeing phones around the world.<br><br>Stay tuned for more information!<br>
<br><br>Sincerely,<br><br><br>The OpenMoko Team.<br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>OpenMoko community mailing list<br><a href="mailto:community@lists.openmoko.org">community@lists.openmoko.org</a>
<br><a href="http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community">http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community</a><br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Jeff<br>O|||||||O