this is for a side project called ".stat", which is a simple analytical app that does way more then google analytics (and updates instantly, where google updates every 6-hours)

anyway, i just started to work on it this morning, but heres the jist of it:

Looks very cool so far, mate. Keep up the good work.

Looks good, I take it you know about mint? http://www.haveamint.com/

actually, the creation of this software was brought on by mint, i was looking for a good web analytics app and i found mint, and although 40$ US is pretty cheap, i thought it lacked features like Browser Quirks, Geo-Targeting and Graphs. So I decided i was going to make my own.

here is the general layout:

You really need some padding on the left of that rounded heading badly.

Also, I'm pretty sure with that layout you're going to be accused of stealing Mint's layout. The whole dark-grey-gradient-in-rounded-box is apparently a trademark of Shaun Inman (I don't agree, but I've seen several accusations of plagiarism for simply using that basic style).

i dont own a copy of mint, nor have i seen much of it. I dont see how i can be acused of plagerising content i have never seen.

also, if i did use just plain rounded-corners then the interface would look too boring.

This interface looks so damn cool. But I agree with the padding on the heading.

I don't think anyone is going to seriously take you up on plagiarism anyway.

A very nice and clean-cut interface you have progressing there.

I don't know whether you were inspired by Mint or not with the gradient, but to be honest in what you have now, I think it would look better without the gradient anyway. Just have a solid (dark) grey bar, with the rounded corners. I think that'd look great. Rest of it looks really nice

I don't either, but sadly it's the truth. Mixing green and a few shades of grey is illegal.

Apparently.

Are you sure about that? There are a lot of web pages which have a blueish theme and IPS haven't been accused of anything. Or does it have to be something unique?

You can't trademark a colour scheme except in very specific circumstances (for example, the UK phone company 'Orange' supposedly has the trademark to use orange as its identity, and they sued Easy Group plc [whose corporate colour is also orange] when they entered the mobile phone market. I'm not even sure if they won...). I'd be very surprised - ney, drop dead with shock - if he could successfully win a trademark dispute over using green + grey.

ellawella - I don't understand it either, but it's probably because of the hype Mint generated. I find it really annoying too.

Rikki - I totally agree, and I'm not trying to accuse him of stealing anything, I just feel that some people will, considering layouts much less similar have been directly linked to Mint, too.

Oh, and...

im starting to dislike this shaun inman fellow, i dont see how someone can create one peice of software and then trademark such a common design tactic...

Actually I don't know if it's him doing it, moreso his many 'fans' that want to protect his software from whatever sake.

Again, I have nothing against your design. It looks good to me.

I think when they say "the colour red" it means they have trademarked the colour red when marketing themselves as a post office. So nobody else is allowed to be a post office company and use the colour red, because that is Royal Mail's trademark colour.

I'm not sure whether something similar to this would apply to Mint unless they had specifically stated it or registered the trademark.

I've read up on it and you can only trademark a colour when it doesn't serve a functional purpose. For example, there's no other reason that a post office is red other than it's recognisable so that can be trademarked, but you can't trademark green packaging on organic foods because there's a functional link between green and nature/health.

Apparently you also can't trademark colours that are functional in terms of aesthetics, and in my non-lawyer opinion, that excludes most web designs from trademark issues. Green and grey is a naturally pleasing combination, so I would think it can't be trademarked.

Well this has been interesting.

Looks really good!

"You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." You take the gray pill and you wil be shown all the inbetweens that you never knew existed. ...and there shall be stats.

The wholly rounded corners on every single thing just made me think of medicine, then the Matrix quote.

As far as "green/gray" being a good combination of colors, gray itself matches with almost anything. I would also assume Veracon's knowledge of trademark complaints would be the fanbase of Mint, not Shaun Inman himself. However, using a similar look and feel to a direct competitor (free or otherwise) is a bit strange to anyone, regardless of whether it was knowingly done or not. However, doesn't Mint use a white background, and/or minty shade?

If you're going to use a gradient, you'll either need to use a gradient to a different shade, or change the text color so "Refresh" is actually more easily viewable. You don't want to discriminate against people with poor eye sight, do you?

-edit-
Just to clarify, I was only picking fun at the "pill" reference. It does look like a pill, but at the same time I do like the way it looks.

OT: Do you think the CSS rounded corners fad is close to being over? It seems like you can't visit digg.com without some mention of rounded corners. You'd think it was the Holy Grail, lol.

thanks to everyoen for there input

heres another draft of the interface:

I like that better...and it follows the roundness of your login style as well.

I think there's a bit too much bevel on the buttons there. I don't mind beveling in itself, but along with that very clear shadow you have, it just doesn't look very good to me.

hmm, i only put one pix of bevel, ill lower the shadow size and see how it looks

I also think the bottom toolbar is alittle out of place, but i dont konw where else to put those icons

Yeah, it's the shadow distance that's the problem, I think.

Just out of curiosity, what exactly will you be displaying on the Quirks category? I can't really think of much other than "On/Off" or some in-between...

people who didnt have java
people with cookies disabled
people with high security settings
etc...

Nice

is this going to be free to download cos id love to use it

im still determining a price, im going to give around 30 copies out for free to spread some hype, and its not gonna cost more than 35 bucks

this is mostly a side project so i can raise some money for my university tuition

can u include me when u give those 30 copies away, please, pretty please