Ph0X_b01
02-15-2009, 05:19 PM
Ok well my problem with the skin is that there's too much waste of space. The skin organisation is horrible. I'm a minimalist person and wow, this just looks... just look
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/5318/02152009071337ek2.png
Ofcourse you might say I made the window the smallest possible, but alot of people are at lower resolutions (800x600 or even 640x480) and specially ingame, sometimes people have to lower the resolution to get better fps and size of the window wont be much bigger than this.
Red = Friend's message area
Green = Your Message Area
Blue = "Obvious" wasted space
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/2862/02152009070246pk2.jpg
I'd like to add that the wasted space is just in relation to the current skin. Ofcourse re-organizing the buttons placement and size will ofcourse reduce even more the wasted space.
Now, a quick photoshop (no perfection here) that somehow shows what I'm looking for.
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/7679/customsteamskinmt8.png
As you can see, there is way less wasted space, and couple extra buttons to make things easier/quicker (view profile, server info, aliases and block). The arrow is pretty useless, but I still left it there. We could even maybe put Join Server instead of View Profile and make it go to profile when you double click the image.
As you can see, I made the avatar twice as big, added status when ingame, and alot of other things. The scroll is transparent , but it should turn opaque when you hover over it.
I was thinking about totally removing the send button, but I still left it there in the corner.
Here's some stats about old/new skin.
Chars in convo box (old skin): ~200
Chars in convo box (new skin): ~490
Chars in message box (old skin): ~170
Chars in message box (new skin): ~335
As you can see, both have doubled.
It would be pretty amazing if someone could make an actual skin out of this. I have the PSD file with every part in a seperate layer and named, classed in folders and stuff. I just don't have enough free time nor knowledge to do it.
Other than the look, the only thing friends is missing, that would make it perfect for me, is LOGS. I cannot live without logs. I use them everyday. It's pretty much where I find all my information. I want to keep a picture I find funny, I send it to a friend, and when I need it again, I know around where in the logs I can find it. So when I talk in Steam, I feel like my conversation is lost... Timestamps are amazing too but the actions the other person does need timestamp too, not only what he says.
Oh and, one last thing. When someone's is not in-game, you can see if they are Snooze / Away / etc. But when they are ingame, you can't. Maybe seperate ingame not-ingame from status (away, snooze, busy, etc).
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/5318/02152009071337ek2.png
Ofcourse you might say I made the window the smallest possible, but alot of people are at lower resolutions (800x600 or even 640x480) and specially ingame, sometimes people have to lower the resolution to get better fps and size of the window wont be much bigger than this.
Red = Friend's message area
Green = Your Message Area
Blue = "Obvious" wasted space
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/2862/02152009070246pk2.jpg
I'd like to add that the wasted space is just in relation to the current skin. Ofcourse re-organizing the buttons placement and size will ofcourse reduce even more the wasted space.
Now, a quick photoshop (no perfection here) that somehow shows what I'm looking for.
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/7679/customsteamskinmt8.png
As you can see, there is way less wasted space, and couple extra buttons to make things easier/quicker (view profile, server info, aliases and block). The arrow is pretty useless, but I still left it there. We could even maybe put Join Server instead of View Profile and make it go to profile when you double click the image.
As you can see, I made the avatar twice as big, added status when ingame, and alot of other things. The scroll is transparent , but it should turn opaque when you hover over it.
I was thinking about totally removing the send button, but I still left it there in the corner.
Here's some stats about old/new skin.
Chars in convo box (old skin): ~200
Chars in convo box (new skin): ~490
Chars in message box (old skin): ~170
Chars in message box (new skin): ~335
As you can see, both have doubled.
It would be pretty amazing if someone could make an actual skin out of this. I have the PSD file with every part in a seperate layer and named, classed in folders and stuff. I just don't have enough free time nor knowledge to do it.
Other than the look, the only thing friends is missing, that would make it perfect for me, is LOGS. I cannot live without logs. I use them everyday. It's pretty much where I find all my information. I want to keep a picture I find funny, I send it to a friend, and when I need it again, I know around where in the logs I can find it. So when I talk in Steam, I feel like my conversation is lost... Timestamps are amazing too but the actions the other person does need timestamp too, not only what he says.
Oh and, one last thing. When someone's is not in-game, you can see if they are Snooze / Away / etc. But when they are ingame, you can't. Maybe seperate ingame not-ingame from status (away, snooze, busy, etc).