MetroTwit beta is up

intelman said:

PaoloM said:

*snip*

Even if that is the case, that is still pretty lame.

That you have to reboot to replace system level components?

I guess all systems are lame, then...

intelman said:

PaoloM said:

*snip*

Even if that is the case, that is still pretty lame.

Not really, anyway..

Visually its certainly 'inspired' by metro, by that I mean, pretty much a ripoff, however I think that was the aim, to try and see if some UI unity could be created, and the UI/UX works great already.

The app works really well, and its really nice to see clickonce being used, not only does it have a fantastic install experience, but uninstalling is great too (I'm not really a twitter desktop client user).

The funny thing is this makes me almost depressed, clickonce and wpf has been available for some time now, and offers a fantastic app experience on windows, but isn't at all the experience people think of when windows is mentioned.. I'm pretty sick of the PC hardware/software campers who are willing to make meagre, dull windows software/hardware. That said, I guess with so many 'cooks' the vision for the windows platform is insanely vague, and I guess that's why apple are doing so well by having their own defined universe.

longzheng said:

fknight said:

*snip*

You're welcome

I don't use twitter, but downloaded to see that zune UI. You guys did awesome job, really like how smooth it all works. How long did you guys cook this thing? Did you follow any ui guidelines or just copied zune software feel?

BorekB said:

longzheng said:

*snip*

Hi Long, any insight into why the text is blurry?

 

I find the current text rendering to be pretty good although we have had some users say the text is blurry. We'll keep playing with it but it's my understanding most people find it acceptable.

RoyalSchrubber said:

longzheng said:

*snip*

I don't use twitter, but downloaded to see that zune UI. You guys did awesome job, really like how smooth it all works. How long did you guys cook this thing? Did you follow any ui guidelines or just copied zune software feel?

We definitely looked at the Zune desktop UI as the starting point to do a Metro-like experience in a desktop client. We also draw a lot of inspiration from the Metro guidelines on WP7S, but obviously not all of that is applicable on the desktop.

In areas like the notifications, we're trying some UX concepts of our own with the "Metro" philosophy in mind.

Click once being under utilized is sad Does Google Chrome use it, it's installer is quite efficient?

In anycase the text rendering in this client is beautiful. It is probably the best looking text I've seen on my LCD ever. I really want to see this expanded to other clients, especially IM clients. Someone needs to make a great looking IM client.

Oh and after the reboot for .NET 4, that stupid optimization process really destroyed my PC, I thought the twitter client had horrible performance, turns out it was just .NET...

Post removed at user's request.

Ion Todirel said:

Search at the bottom, blasphemy!

Search at the bottom does seem a bit odd, and the search box is a little on the large side for my liking (especially given how short tweets are!) but overall I'm liking it. Have had a few weird redraw issues (bug report submitted) but maybe that is just my machine.

longzheng said:

BorekB said:

*snip*

I find the current text rendering to be pretty good although we have had some users say the text is blurry. We'll keep playing with it but it's my understanding most people find it acceptable.

The issue with the blurry text seems to boil down to a sub-optimal choice of font and maybe also not using the new text rendering options available in WPF 4.

http://10rem.net/blog/2010/06/06/wpf-and-silverlight-choose-your-fonts-and-text-rendering-options-wisely

mawcc said:

longzheng said:

*snip*

The issue with the blurry text seems to boil down to a sub-optimal choice of font and maybe also not using the new text rendering options available in WPF 4.

 

http://10rem.net/blog/2010/06/06/wpf-and-silverlight-choose-your-fonts-and-text-rendering-options-wisely

That article suggests using Segoe UI instead of Segoe WP.

I suggest Segoe UI Light instead.

Edit: I meant for the title/headers only. Tweets in Segoe UI please.

Ion Todirel said:

Search at the bottom, blasphemy!

It's like that in Windows too, unless you move the taskbar to the top (or sides)

Why hasn't anyone commented on the name? Sound like a French Underground (Metro)  Idiot. (Twit)

AdamSpeight2008 said:

Why hasn't anyone commented on the name? Sound like a French Underground (Metro)  Idiot. (Twit)

Sounds more like a metro-sexual twit to me.

But then again, isn't that somewhat appropriate? In fact, I'd like to propose that we call everyone who uses twitter a twit from now on.

mawcc said:

longzheng said:

*snip*

The issue with the blurry text seems to boil down to a sub-optimal choice of font and maybe also not using the new text rendering options available in WPF 4.

 

http://10rem.net/blog/2010/06/06/wpf-and-silverlight-choose-your-fonts-and-text-rendering-options-wisely

Segoe WP for Windows Phone works well because the device runs at a high dpi.  For the default 96dpi of Windows, Segoe UI with its hints work better.

Also WPF4 brought in updated font handling, also be sure to snap to device pixels.

But WPF4 will not have as crisp a font rendering that Direct Text or standard GDI+ does.  But WPF works best for scalable DPI, and you could re-factor the code for the MetroTwit Windows Phone app I know you will be planning as I type!