Dazzle is just fine by me

I really like the new interface. Been working on a big SL project and I was getting very frustrated with all the hard to see interfaces. This new look is just on time for me.

People who like what you do don't always feel as motivated to post as those who have a problem, so just wanted to let you know I really like Dazzle.

Not sure I'd say that I'm totally happy with it but it's looking pretty good, IMO.

The minimap somehow seems different to me. Like the aspect ratio is off or something. Need to look at it closer sometime soon but it kept catching my eye last night as not looking right.

Also finding it hard to get the UI Size right. Chat text is just a bit too small and avatar names are just a bit too big. This could just be from me not having to poke those settings in ages, though - should go back to the old RC and just copy/paste the settings from there.

While I am sure that the Dazzle interface will look great to some people, it should also be expected that others will find it not to their liking.

While it does look pretty, I find it to be way too bright and overpowering. If I have any of the interface windows open at all, whether the build or communicate windows, they are about all my eyes will look at. I have to force myself to look away from them and into the world itself. And isn't the in-world content what SL is supposed to be about?

I have tried to use this twice now and after nearly an hour each time, I literally started getting eye strain headaches and had to shut down.

I seriously hope that there will be a way to choose some other color scheme before this goes into production. What looks great to one person isn't necessarily going to work for another. And there is the problem with dealing with aesthetics. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Better to pay closer attention to ergonomics and then allow choices for people to set their own color scheme.

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I tried Dazzle and it is way to bright and opaque. When I am building I often have many windows open. When I tried this with dazzle I had to move around all the time to see what I was actually working on. With the old UI I could see new, light wood, prims through the dark interface because of the contrast. With Dazzle it's light on light and not very clear at all. The bright UI distracts from the graphics in the background.
Take a look at other UI's in game or graphic environments. Most of them are subdued for a reason. Black text on white background works fine for Office applications because the background is irrelevant. In SL or any graphic environment, the background is the MOST important. If it wasn't, we could go back to text only chat rooms.
Look at Torley's screenshots, zoom in and see which is easier to read.

Exact opposite for me. I found the sea of grey hard to look past to see my build. But part of it I think is the different ways monitors work and the different ways we process visual information. Maybe a solution would be to increase the tweaking we can do on the interface to accommodate our differences.

That is why I said that I hope there is a way for us to choose a different color scheme. What works for me, obviously, won't work for you. That is the problem with trying to force one, fixed color scheme on everyone. It just won't fly well most of the time.

We should be able to pick from three or four "skins" with fixed color schemes ranging from the current gray to the Dazzle blue or allow us to just pick our own colors similar to the way Windows does it.

But, for me, the Dazzle blue is, flat out, a non-starter. I simply can't use it.

Dazzle.... meh.

Pretty. Nice update. But I still like the old look. I might be "weird" for saying I like the interface we have now. I figure if you can't figure out what a button labeled "Search" does.... you gotta be stupid. At least the original look doesnt seem to blend in with the background.

why? Because it would belittle your image as an edgy silicon head who is ahead of all the curves.....? Nah!
The style is OK, but that color scheme is hard on my eyes. I tried it for about an hour and I just got more bleary eyed as time went on. I hope it will have color options, will be easily modified by Nicholaz or someone.

hmmm.. not sure I get this.. 'Dazzle'.... this a new client by a 3rd party?
I have found the new windlight with its IM chat text in bold very distracting.. and the latest update makes my chat text in main, sorta wonky lol... lettering isn't straight, made me reach for my GC tune up settings, but that was fine, might be linked to the chat lagg as well I guess.

Dazzle is wonderful, but it is... how to explain it... it is really breaking my immersion in a big way.

It has a sort of a contempo, Apple-showroomy sort of professional-looking niceness.

Which is lovely, but doesn't feel right *at all* for my small corner of the grid.



I want brass and dark wood. Even the vaguely dystopian 'dark interface' of the client that we have now is closer to that.

And if it's not great for NeoVictorians, I can imagine the howlz of protest from all the goths, vampires &c having to come in through an interface that is just so... modern-cheery!

Imagine it. SL denizen in his den at home. AC/DC wallpaper on his computer, vampire avatar in SL, posters of Jim Morrison on his walls. Everything matches... except for the SL interface that is more appropriate for a Sanrio Hello Kitty store. Sound of window breaking...

We need skins. Or even just one tiny option of "the old color scheme" at very least.

It's a great interface. It just needs that extra little step to make people feel comfy - toss a "Preferences" on there.

Maybe you can't do skins right away. But even just "old" and "new" color preferences would be a huge step in the right direction, making LOTS of people feel more comfortable.

I guess the odds of getting a steampunk Victorian skin on an official client is slim... or is it? grins

Usability is great - I'm all for that, believe me I'm a marathon SL session kinda guy. But a little preservation of immersion would be nice.

I totally agree: at the very least there should be an option to select
the old color scheme.

Dazzle is too bright for me and diminishes my SL experience.

If it is oldly Goth Vamp styling, count me in LOL...

BTW, where can I get/see this new fangled client?

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/02/19/dazzle/

(It's a new - separate - first look viewer: http://secondlife.com/community/firstlook.php)

I am underwhelmed by Dazzle. After all the buildup by LL, I was expecting a more thorough reimagining of the Second Life user interface (perhaps redesign of the menus and some of the more important popups like Search and Build, or some new capabilities like a teleport history), not just a new color scheme and other minor visual tweaks.

As for what HAS been delivered, I like the new icons in the Events listing and the Inventory. My feelings on the redesigned buttons and the new color scheme are more mixed; they strike me as more like tinkering for the sake of tinkering, plus the fact that they seem to have taken a LOT (both the colors and the squared-off buttons) from the OnRez viewer visual design.

Aside from that, the viewer itself mostly seems to work well. It does share one problem with all the 1.19.0 series viewers (I have tried the RC and the current WindLight, as well as the Dazzle First Look); there seem to be problems with loading your friends list, it takes a LONG time before the names arrive.

Disclaimer: I'm a CSI:NY greeter, and therefore have spent a LOT of time using the OnRez viewer. We normally run it while on duty, to be better prepared to help the newcomers.

Spot on...

The best way I can describe the feeling is this:

I'm standing on a sidewalk looking into a shop's display window.

But the signs and reflections on the window are distracting and they keep drawing my attention away from the things I'm trying to look at through the glass.

The Dazzle UI is pretty, but shouldn't upstage or compete with in-world content. =)

gives me a headache to bright and like others said maybe with a skin chooser it will be ok I run even Fire fox black I cant stand bright stuff on the screen!