Comments on: Thoughts on transparency

By: Dock

Dock — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:06:29 +0000

I’m inclined to agree. I think transparency adds a lot to GUI, but I think that large transparent panels are pretty dreadful for the most part. It would probably be better if it were easier to do effects like frosting and blurring universally, but more often than not it just makes the GUI fussy and unusable. (delayed response, I only just read this blog entry! XD)

By: Nicholas

Nicholas — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:08:43 +0000

@Lucas:
Actually, I think it’s perfectly all right to use transparency for looking “cool”.

The main goal of the default skin is to provide a skin which sort-of fits most graphical styles. Hence, I’ve made it as transparent as I can (so more of the background artwork can show through). This was meant for games and not for heavy UI – hence the heavy transparency.

I assumed (correctly) that most people will actually make their own skins when they ship a game – hmm – that might just mean that the built-in skin sucks Oh well.

By: Lucas

Lucas — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:10:12 +0000

Maybe you should also change the default skin of the unity gui then

Bye, Lucas

By: laurent

laurent — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:00:27 +0000

It’s great to refer back to the basics of psycho perception when unsure.
The temporal component of GUI design is also ignored quite often to benefit visual marketting : fade in menus that make you wait and other “modal” effects.
And what about hierarchical-heavy gui, hidden hierrachy and so on such you can contenplate in wizzard heavy products…

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:23:50 +0000

Very nice info, we also had and have discussions about using transparency or not.
My personal opinion is that transparency really actually sucks, it’s something which is used mostly because it is there and new not because it is useful.