Introducing Second Life's 'Dazzle' user interface update!
Posted on: October 29, 2007
At Linden Lab, I have an opportunity to work on many projects which are both intriguing and exciting. In hopes of sharing such intrigue + excitement with you, I wanted to let you in…
I'm helping to get the word out about the Dazzle project, which is our codename for the Resident Experience (Rx) Team's visual update of the Second Life user interface — you know, all the windows you move around, buttons you click, and other things you interact with to control your inworld experience.
We hope this will make things friendlier and not so battleship/submarine-looking. Apple has their Aqua and Microsoft has their Aero Glass, and after SL was dunked in gray for a number of years, pleasant change is in order.
The picture above is a casual screenshot of me gettin' Dazzle-y with it; pardon that the aspect ratio is a bit odd, because one of my trusty Samsung 204Bs died today 
and I gotta get a new monitor. Life (and Second Life) without dual screens feels limiting.
Benjamin hasn't made an announcement yet, but…
IT JUST SO HAPPENS that you can try Dazzle out TODAY, NOW! GO HERE and download the preview, and install it by replacing the appropriate files. If you'd prefer to keep your original viewer around, just make a copy of the SecondLife folder and title it "SecondLife Dazzle", then work with that — it's what I did.
Pay particular attention not just Dazzle's colors, but shapes of controls, and the new icon set. Observe, use it regularly if you'd like, and give it a week to grow on you; just remember the Principle of Design Inertia if you feel adverse at first. 
Please keep in mind this is very much a work-in-progress and I've been giving heaps o' feedback… attend Benjamin Linden's Thursday office hour if you've got something to share and help us make it better, I'm sure Ben will be overjoyed. If you can't make it, comment here! You can of course leave a comment on my blog, and I'll forward your feedback to Ben & Rx Team.
OK *enthused* I just had to share!
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October 30th, 2007 at 7:53 AM PDT
[...] one I hadn't seen mentioned before the Dazzle Project from Linden Labs, from Torley, Introducing Second Life's 'Dazzle' user interface update! At Linden Lab, I have an opportunity to work on many projects which are both intriguing and [...]
October 30th, 2007 at 3:36 PM PDT
Ahh, PJIRA is being nasty after today's reindexing, it won't show newer issues in the search.
Anyway, you'll have to manually check my issues for now if you're interested: VWR-2915 and VWR-2916 I posted (now maybe getting duped as nobody knows they're there).
Soory to hear about your monitor
I know what it's like when peripherals break, it's terribly nasty.
October 30th, 2007 at 5:04 PM PDT
looks really nice Torley will try it out tomorrow! …
October 31st, 2007 at 3:58 PM PDT
Seems really, really broken. Greyed out text is very hard to read, IM windows are white text on a white background and dark blue on blue doesn't work too well for buttons. Also, it seems like most people agree that being able to see through windows isn't exactly a good design choice. Vista did it, it was pretty eww, but at least I could turn it off. OSX 10.5 did it in it's menu bar, but I see no way to turn it off. Being able to choose your background color is very helpful in design. Making something transparent mean you no longer have control. Sure, you can see behind the window, but if you're using the window, do you really want to? I don't know. I'm not a fan of this trend, and neither are critics. I really think you're setting yourself up here for 101 angry blog posts if this is ever announced on the linden blog. Yes, the UI can be better, but it can also be worse. Take a look at the electric sheep CSI viewer sometime. They made it more simple and removed some stuff, but it looks nice, otherwise, and it's very friendly.
October 31st, 2007 at 7:00 PM PDT
Ante, I agree with you on several points, the green object chat in the chat history is not really legible either, there's lots of room for improvement.
Regarding the transparency of windows, it's actually a bit too little sometimes, imo. When I have an IM (Communicate) window open, it takes up a very large bit of my screen (using 800×600 windowed mode). At a certain point I can't size it any smaller either. In the old UI, I just click the ground inworld, the window becomes very transparent, so I'm able to see the world again and walk around. In Dazzle, the window doesn't get much more transparent, I can walk, but I have no clue where I'm going. Only thing I can do is minimize the IM window. My framerates aren't the highest ever, so going larger than 800×600 is not an option, and I don't really want to scale the UI down either, it's obviously not made for that. So the IM window will always be in the way. It's no problem, as long as I can see through it.
November 1st, 2007 at 5:31 AM PDT
That's one thing I like about the changes they made for voice (which everyone else seems to hate). While the IM window is a little bigger, the history is also in there, so it saves screen space. I use that, because I usually have both open at the same time, anyway. I can always flip back to history if I missed something on the bottom of the screen, as well. And yeah, the screen gets a little messy with inventory and the build menu open. Maybe a way to add inventory to an object without opening the inventory menu would be a good idea, on top of dragging something in. Maybe an add inventory button that opens a pop up menu, which could be put in profiles as well to send items. Actually, now that I think of it, I've ignored the whole dragging inventory to a small text box under somebody's profile until now. That isn't very intuitive. I mean, dragging an object to an item's inventory list is ok, but dragging something into a never changing text box is pretty strange. I think maybe a labeled icon would be better. It would probably take up more space, though, and would probably not be big enough to look ok under or to the side of the group list or profile. Maybe the profile window could be improved, as well? I should really learn to modify the client so I can try some stuff out.
November 1st, 2007 at 8:03 AM PDT
That's not very intuitive and especially since it's a half hidden option: you don't need to drag an item onto the small text box, you can drag it everywhere on the profile. Torley put that in one of the video tuts, but if you've never seen those, I don't know how you could possibly know.
November 1st, 2007 at 1:17 PM PDT
[...] Torley introduced in his blog the new user interface for the Second Life Client. Hmm… maybe I should ask Torley as well as to why my account has been disabled. [...]
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:58 PM PDT
Torley,
looks fancy, light blue and all the web2.0 - but I think a more interesting option would be to make the client skinnable and make a contest for it.
I for one, prefer the Nicholaz' remix of the "old" interface into voice-enabled viewer - it is simple, laconic, and usable. Other person might want something different.. I guess there are enough HCI-enlightened folks on SL to get out a few skins for many tastes. That could be even a buyable item (why not?)
/d
November 4th, 2007 at 6:06 AM PST
Torley, I found "Dazzle" interesting enough to create a video tour of the thing.
Although perhaps factually lacking (or even inaccurate in spots), I tried to bolster and applaud the work being done while at the same time pointing out those technical roadblocks to perfection which existed at the time it was produced.
You can watch my 5'15" DazzleVideo
November 4th, 2007 at 6:08 AM PST
Sorry, my tag use was thwarted. Here is the link if copy/paste form:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roWx4VFN9bc
November 4th, 2007 at 8:22 AM PST
I've been using Dazzle for a few days now. It's much more aesthetically pleasing than the old UI, but it could use a bit more contrast in certain places (the graphics detail sliders are quite hard to see.) Other than that I have no complaints. Good stuff!
November 4th, 2007 at 6:08 PM PST
OH GREAT feedback on Dazzle, I'm going to have to show this to Benjamin and our Rx Team so we can pay closer attention!
@Daed: I'll check out those issues personally too. Look forward to seeing you at the UI bug triage, too! (I wish I could make Ben's Thurs. time as well).
@Adec: Right on, that's the spirit!
@Ante: I will confirm we DEFINITELY have some design blockers that we need to fix to get better color independence in some areas. For example, if you've ever wondered why you can change main chat color text (Preferences > Text Chat > Chat Color's "Users") but NOT IM text, I believe new code must be put in place to accomodate that. So some of these uglies are NOT desirable NOR by design. I'm glad you brought them up!
I don't like windows that are too noticeably see-through; subtlety works best; I haven't personally used the OnRez viewer yet (due to sheer lack of time to sit down with it in a NON-rush job context), but I want to.
*reads further down the discussion*
/me doesn't like how unintuitive some of the WHERE to drag-and-drop in our interface is, either. Group Notices is another example, because Brent (I believe it was) made a kewl "drop-zone" icon but it's kind of superfluous with the rest of the UI there. We need a better standard.
@Dalien: I haven't used the most recent Nicholaz viewer myself but I'm hoping both Resident-created goods will encourage Linden Lab to do better, AND that we'll make the viewer more open to friendly skinning.
Problem with buying skins, however, is once the files are on your hard drive, you can pretty much copy them, unless we were to do something more complicated akin to DRM for UI skins — I'm not sure we want to go that route.
@Amras: Oh joy! I haven't watched your vid yet but I hope to soon, and I'll let Ben + our Rx Team know you did this! *excited*
@Newton: I'll watch out for the graphic detail sliders specifically. Thank-you.
November 4th, 2007 at 6:35 PM PST
As it turns out, my issues aren't completely Dazzle-only. The N for North is missing bug just stood out more with darker colour.
November 5th, 2007 at 11:58 PM PST
Way too bright!
I hope there will be a choice for colors. I need white/light color text on dark/black background due to vision issues.
Actually it looks kinda like someone merely hit Invert.
November 6th, 2007 at 5:31 AM PST
A follow-up: I just installed the UI per Torley's instructions and have seen the new UI. As expected it is way too bright. And the contrast is marginal, aside from the rollovers which are OK (dark blue background - light text).
The current contrast is correct. White on Black. Black text on white is
also high contrast, but if the menus this it would wash out the player window, which is what this "Powder Blue" theme is doing. Legibility
and non-intrusiveness are the goals. Dark backgrounds with light
text work in the SL environment. It's not surprising that that is the
way it is now; I'm sure a lot of thought went into it; it wasn't based
on what Microsoft or others were doing.
I can see a lot of work went into this new skin; and since it's fairly complete and new, it should be conceivable that there could be a dark/black version of it.
Most likely there'll be a preview version so more feedback can be garnered. I didn't get any results for Dazzle in the context of a UI on the Forums; which means it's not being discussed much yet.
November 6th, 2007 at 6:54 PM PST
Hello,
i have make a purple version of Dazzle
you can see it here
November 6th, 2007 at 6:55 PM PST
tag problem
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2377/1895991861_be16a3b15d_o.jpg
November 11th, 2007 at 6:48 AM PST
@Russ: Thanx for the comments, I wonder if part of your perception of "brightness" is because you're not used to it yet? After all, operation systems like OS X and Windows XP Silver are both very bright. (The default Vista one is dark, I know.) My own preference for text editor colors is amber-on-black, so I can relate to a need for contrast in some instances.
I am actually irked that the current SL interface is white-on-DARK GRAY, which has historically made me react, "I just want black for highest contrast!"
We will certainly continue to garner appreciated feedback, and feel free to spread word of it to your friends, the forums, etc. Right now we're in an informal "early noticer" phase before expanding things larger.
@aliceinwire: Ohh Benjamin showed the Dazzle Team what you sent our way! Thank-you for your work on this: to clarify for anyone wondering, Dazzle's primarily goal is an aesthetic refresh & update of the main viewer's user interface, but we do NOT yet intend to make user-created skins easily switchable, altho part of what we learn through Dazzle may pave the way for that further down the road. What alice has made here shows that user-created skins *can* be made and customized, and I look forward to her watermelon version too (we chatted inworld).
November 18th, 2007 at 2:37 PM PST
Christopher Molinaro Claps. brilliant, very sleek idea, Love it, to hard to describe
February 20th, 2008 at 3:19 AM PST
I think it is a great start in a wonderful direction…I have gotten in and played a bit, and being able to choose my own colors is GREAT!!
Just curious though….is there a list of the color controls alone..searching through the debug list one by one is a drag…LOL….Thanks again for all you do!! Back to da grid I goes! O.O
February 24th, 2008 at 7:47 AM PST
@Baldi: Thanks for trying Dazzle! There's not an easier way to recolor the UI *yet* but we want to make that (specifically, switchable skins) easy for novices and newcomers in the future.
March 28th, 2008 at 9:08 AM PDT
I think it looks great !! Everything is so easy to read now - it looks really fresh and clean instead of that dull grey from all the previous viewers.
I am not sure why people are complaining about it but then again, I am a mac user and am used to the aqua like menus.
March 28th, 2008 at 9:12 AM PDT
I forgot to add - the previous versions of SL were not running too well on my Macbook Pro 2.0 (x1600 card), especially after I installed Leopard. This one is very smooth - no spinning ball and no freeze ups when typing text or around other avatars.
Whatever they have done, it's fantastic - the aesthetics make it even more appealing and fun to use !!
March 30th, 2008 at 6:38 PM PDT
Thanks for your thoughts, Kei! I agree with the phrase "fresh and clean", the old-style viewer's grey reminds me of a cross between Amiga Workbench + industrial submarine. o.O
May 9th, 2008 at 1:19 PM PDT
Hi …
Silly question but one I will ask anyway. When , oh when Mighty Torley, do you think we will be able to drag windows out of the client. I have two monitors and am a builder scripter. It would be so handy to be able to open my windows and drag them to a second screen. I know its a crazy fantastic stupid idea, but, hell, it makes life so much easier. Look at your 'Dazzle Screen shot and tell me how much real estate you have left with your sub windows open ????
River:
*RE*
May 11th, 2008 at 8:20 AM PDT
@River: That's a good question, and I've hoped for it for a LONG time. It's been brought up to me many times, and long story short: Second Life doesn't use native operating system windows. Everything appears within the OpenGL "viewport" you see in the viewer. Therefore, it's a non-trivial thing to do, and there may be hacks ? Benjamin Linden suggested making the viewport window one of several on a blank background so you could at least move palettes to another monitor ? but you're right, it'd be super-useful to make use of all that space.
BUT also to be fair… my Dazzle screenshot is JUST for illustration purposes. I normally don't have so many windows open at once, and I minimize windows too.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:04 PM PDT
True, about the windows, but its so easy when editing , scripting and in IM's to have 1/2 dozen windows open and we hope when people try to get our attention, they pay us a buck or something, else, we just don't get to see em…