UI refactor (with mockups)

[Cody Garver]

vineyard has so much to offer it can seem overwhelming at first. I propose these UI changes; see attached mockups.

The bottle menu is wide because it has to be. Since it's big "Wine Prefix" can be appended to the current bottle's name with space to spare.

Tabs need to go. If something requires a tab, it deserves a sidebar shortcut instead. Without tabs the information is easier to read.

Sidebar shortcuts should be:

General
-Includes same options as well as Places (before called Places>Folders)

Appearance
-Should display what was before Appearance>Windows

Theme
-Should display what was before Appearance>Theme

Drives
-Should display what was before Places>Drives.

Graphics
-Should display what was before Devices>Graphics

Sound
-Should display what was before Devices>Sound

Libraries
Programs
Install
Tools

[Cody Garver (codygarver)]

Oh and I made some minor changes to the bottom right buttons. Most if not all of the other preference applications have Close as the most bottom right button.

[Christian Dannie Storgaard (cybolic)]

Wow, it's been a while since you posted this, sorry for not responding sooner, and thanks for the suggestions!

The Close button has been moved to the right, but I'm not too sure about the reordering of the sidebar entries/tabs, and I don't really like the "Wine prefix" suffix - it looks a bit clumsy to me.

The reason I moved things to tabs was to keep the amount of entries in the sidebar low, to not overwhelm new users with too many options at once, but you might be right that it's a bit tricky to navigate.
I'll try to do some mockups of the sidebar as you suggested, but with separators - something like this maybe? :

General
> System
> Folders
Appearance
> Windows
> Theme
Devices
> Drives
> Graphics
> Sound
Programs
> Installed
> Available
System
> Libraries
> Tools

Let me know what you think, and thanks again for the suggestions.

[Cody Garver (codygarver)]

Hey cybolic, thank you for your replies! I've learned a lot about application design since I posted this mockup and I would be glad to revisit it. I really appreciate you being so open to my ideas!