Okay, this might be tricky given the fact that we use Windows
Installer (MSI and such), but I kinda find the LibreOffice installer
to be a little plain looking, and given that it seems like we're
trying to distance ourselves from the look of "that other free office
suite", I think it could use a new paint job.
Note, when I say new paintjob, I kinda mean a stylistic overhaul. What
I'm proposing, is that we re-design the wizard to break away from the
old "Wizard 97" style of design that we're using now, and shift more
towards the style of wizard layout that Windows Vista began to use
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511302.aspx and
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511260.aspx for info) Now
note, despite the fact that I am proposing this style of layout, we
should still do it in a way that is backwards compatible with the
previous versions of the OS too. Thankfully, the designers did make a
graceful fallback for the classic theme (there is a regular titlebar,
and the back button appears in the main window alongside the page
heading), so I'm taking it to my advantage.
After the installer launches (maybe we should find a way to lose that
extraction "wrapper" somehow too in the process, or at least theme it
to look like what we'll be doing here), the start screen would be a
little different since Aero Wizards discourage "welcome" screens
unless there is a lot of things to know on startup or there is a
function on it. Thus, I have made it the "select installation type"
screen in my mockup. I may also move down the buttons to squeeze in
the LibreOffice logo in between just so it doesn't look blank. (see
http://ploader.net/files/0be576d5c9d6b605a7ec4188d77f2d1c.png)
I'm working on mockups for the other screens, but they would be along
this line (take the file association screen):
http://ploader.net/files/a1a2f2c4a97eb33da1aec77d4a9035eb.png
Notice the slightly different wording, the now-active back button, and
the general ideas here. I wanna keep most of the workflow intact, but
update it to a more clear and concise look. Now, when we actually
theme this, it wouldn't look like a typical Aero wizard, it would have
a design similar to our web design style (the triangle motif, plain
looking buttons, etc), and it would just use a normal window frame
(not the "enlarged" one real implementations use)
I am working on more mockups for this right now, so don't worry, you
will get a full workflow of this soon. And, in response to concerns
that a installer this glitzy would be unprofessional, do note that
this is gonna be based off HIG's that Microsoft has put out for what
everyone should begin to be using, and that even worse, the Office
2010 installer doesn't follow a single word of this.
~Shawn
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- [libreoffice-design] Proposal: Redesign the Windows installer · Shawn Thompson
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