Why is MCEBrowser Black?
Why doesn’t MCEBrowser look like the rest of Media Center 2005? This is a question that pops up from time to time, so I thought I’d post the answer here.
MCEBrowser was originally blue, and looked very much like the rest of the Media Center 2005 interface. Before I released the first public version, I read through the checklist for placing Media Center plugins on download.com and corrected a few things. During the process, I came across the following statement in the Media Center 2005 SDK:
Distinctive Color Scheme
“When choosing a color scheme, try to create a design that incorporates your brand identity. If the color scheme for your design is primarily blue, avoid a look that is too similar to that of the main Media Center user interface. If your application looks like the rest of Media Center, users may fail to understand that they are in a separate application and may become confused.”
So, I changed ALL of the graphics and colors in MCEBrowser to conform to this “best practice” from the SDK documentation. Black was an easy choice because all I had to do in alot of cases was just darken the color of the image. I wonder if this line will be removed from the Vista Media Center SDK?? I mean, take a look at some of the other popular plugins for MCE2005:
MCEWeather
My Movies
My Netflix
Don’t worry about the best practise dude. The best practise would be to do what you do best, your a talented programmer and you should do it the way you feel it should be done. In my opinion, it should be blue, just like the Media Center interface.
Comment by IR1SH SN1PER — April 26, 2007 @ 1:51 pm
The black certainly isn’t a bad look, but I would strongly vote for and love a “MCE blue” version. The color difference makes it look more like a tacked on app rather than a seamless integrated part of MCE.
Comment by Skrider — May 4, 2007 @ 6:49 pm
I have to agree with the first two comments. The SDK’s reasoning is faulty, unless your really interesting in marketing your company. In this case, where your trying to make a great plugin, and not an advertisement for your company, the user not realizing they are in a separate application is exactly what you want. It’s seamless. I’d go back with the blue. IMO.
Comment by Lenny — June 5, 2007 @ 11:52 am
A yaer or so later, I’d have to agree with the other commenters. I think blue would look much nicer.
Comment by justin — July 24, 2008 @ 2:16 pm
Why does the sound not work on xbox360?
Comment by Baylor — March 9, 2010 @ 9:10 am