Jun 29, 2011

Windows Phone 7 released at Ovi Store!

As you probably have already noticed, the themes have been launched at the Store! More theme colors will be added as they get published!

3 comments:

  1. Just to let you know, for these themes in Anna, in the Mail client, read and unread emails look the same.

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  2. HI, I purchesd the WP7 grey theme. I own an N8 and its with Symbian anna...While the idea is extremely good..overall the UI is not integrating well..it actually looks disruptive..here are a few observations :
    1. The icons lack clarity and does not take advantage of AMOLED screens.
    2. The icon pack does not cover the default applications that come out of the box.
    3. if there is a custom backround image for the homescreen, the top panel with the battery & signal shows a gray look..which is very out of place.
    4. When you touch the battery icon in the home screen, typically, in normal theme, it shows connectivity icon, clock & battery icon. The battery icon is not shown.
    5. In tabbed interfaces like messages..the tabs looks very disconnected.
    6. Applications which are loaded on builtin mass memory show SD icon instead of the GB icon.

    These are the immediate observations..overall the UI lacks the pleasing effect. Its a bright idea but probably requires a bit more polish..

    I am not critizising..but considering it is one of the more expensive themes available..it becomes a disappointment...
    the Metro Minimal+ theme, for eg. is very pleasing which I already have..My intention of comapring is the ease in which it nicely integrates into the overall experience..which I think, is not an unreasonable expectation...

    Hoping for an updated version..
    Thanks

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  3. Hello,

    I'd like to ask you whether you bought the Silver Dark or Silver Light version before I dig deeper into your review.

    1. I will assume you've purchased the Dark version based on point 3. The grey color is a 50% black 50% white, which was the color chosen to represent silver. I do not understand how you say the icons do not have clarity. On the test devices they are crisp and very clear. The grey must address both white and black, hence 50/50 being the best compatible color. I'd like to ask if you ever had problems with color display on your device (known N8 issue).

    2. Indeed this will be addressed in the upcoming update and the theme itself will be tailored to Anna devices instead of s^3 (better keyboard among other things). This is the biggest turn off of the theme and I do apologize for this. Only recently have I purchased a S^3 device to make custom themes for it (pos-WP7). I hope you take a look at the iTheme 2 when it's out to see what you should expect with the WP7 update. Even if this doesn't make sense at the moment, you will then understand as I'll implement the innovations I've applied to that theme to WP7 too.

    3. The top panel displaying a 50% transparent black baackground is meant to protect the white text from being overlapped with light backgrounds and this does fit into the overall widget background color as well. Add, for example, the music player widget in a custom background to see what I mean. Both items have similar transparencies.

    4. This has been addressed here in this blog, it has been a design choice to exclude the icon (which is never present in any screen if you take notice and therefore clears the interface). I will try to address this issue in the following update by rethinking this issue and the icon might appear again. If you require the item to be present, email fsxdesigns at gmail and I'll send you a fixed version (battery icon will appear in all screens though).

    5. This is intended.
    6. This will be fixed in the update, thank you very much for letting me know, I had not taken notice of this situation.

    As your final review goes, I must agree with you since there are many icons missing from Anna. When I update the theme (which are actually 24 versions), I will add as many icons as I possibly can, hopefully fixing the experience.

    As far as the UI itself goes I simply cannot bring myself to agree with you. While I've agreed that I need to urgently add more icons, it appears to me that you're used to standardized themes. I've also removed the app display name from the theme (you don't see the name "Menu" in the top panel when you're in the Menu, for example). Theme small tweaks (and battery icon too) really made it a much more pleasant experience for me and countless others. But I obviously can't please everyone! :)


    I do take feedback very well and I really appreciate the effort you've made. If you email me, I'll keep you on my beta test list (for the update) if you are interested.

    Greetings and thank you for the full review,
    fsx

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