August 3, 2001

10:45 AM

Yet Another Artist Link, this guy is more of a GUI/Skin developer, but the imagination and detail he brings to it is amazing. He's been able to turn Winamp into a work of art like no other, time and time again.
posted by jcterminal (28 comments total)

The guy has some good chops, but can I offer some criticism now?

- A splash page. oh so useful.

- First internal page has mystery meat navigation. Where are the winamp skins? Who knows! You have to click on everything until you find it.

- The celebrated winamp skins are much like every other skin I've seen for every program that allows skinning. Why do skin designers say "Hey, lets make the app look like an old, weathered 17th century castle, that'll make the play button easy to find!" instead of "let's make the application look cool and as easy to use and read as possible."

I can't recall ever seeing a single winamp skin that was easier to use or more useful than the default one. I know it's possible, but I've never seen it. Instead, there are tens of thousands of skins that make the app nearly impossible to use.

Here's the skin test for winamp. Install a skin, play a song, now have your phone ring, or your boss pop into your office/cube/box and start timing how long it takes to find the "pause" button. Now repeat with the default skin. I've yet to find a skin that can beat the default (and I think the default skin is ugly, and I wish someone would improve it while not sacrificing the usefulness of it).
posted by mathowie at 11:04 AM on August 3, 2001

DeviantAMP is pretty nice. Once you realize that the pause/play etc are labels for the button right above them. Playlist features could be improved.. but.. oh well. It works for me.
posted by Apoch at 11:20 AM on August 3, 2001

- A splash page. oh so useful.

I don't think the measure of every page on the web is (or should be) how useful it is. Besides, he's an artist, his splash page is an example of his art.

- First internal page has mystery meat navigation.

If you roll over the buttons, their URLs in the status bar give you a pretty good idea of where they lead.

No defense for the winamp skins tho :)
posted by muta at 11:47 AM on August 3, 2001

Does anybody else think that guy's stuff is really fucking creepy?

Geesh!
posted by preguicoso at 11:48 AM on August 3, 2001

The real genius when it comes to Winamp skinning was/is Fli7e.
posted by riffola at 12:12 PM on August 3, 2001

Who died and made him H.R. Giger?
posted by skallas at 12:16 PM on August 3, 2001

Another notable mention is Deadreamer formerly known as Misery (as in "Misery in Motion") Too bad he hasn't made a Winamp skin since '99, be sure to check out his wallpapers and Sonqiue skins.
posted by riffola at 12:17 PM on August 3, 2001

Here's a good winamp skin where you know exactly where the buttons are.
posted by owillis at 12:24 PM on August 3, 2001

My question about mp3/CD player skins is, WHY THE HELL DO THEY MAKE THEM SO FREAKIN BIG?!? When I want to cover up my entire desktop with an image, I use wallpaper. There are a couple programs and one or two skins that I have seen that are small enough while maintaining decent functionality; however, 95% of all the skins available have no chance with me simply because of their excessive size, no matter how cool they may look.
posted by rushmc at 12:25 PM on August 3, 2001

Here's a good winamp skin where you know exactly where the buttons are.

Hmm...the buttons weren't where I was expecting them to be...
posted by rushmc at 12:26 PM on August 3, 2001

Britney definitely pushes some of MY buttons... and not the good ones either.
posted by jdbanks at 12:26 PM on August 3, 2001

- The celebrated winamp skins are much like every other skin I've seen for every program that allows skinning. Why do skin designers say "Hey, lets make the app look like an old, weathered 17th century castle, that'll make the play button easy to find!" instead of "let's make the application look cool and as easy to use and read as possible."

Matt, I'm with you on that one. (about the rest, i don't think you're quite right; he's an artist, after all - plus, not everyone reads jakob's pieces on web usability).

When using most skins (no matter how cool they look), you just can't enjoy winamp. The buttons are hidden somewhere, those skins render winamp useless.

Thank God, there are a couple of nice winamp skins that both look cool and are easy to use:

1. Sumea Amp v2 (blue-green-pink-yellow)
2. 357 Magnum
3. XP Amp
4. X11 Amp
5. Media Jukebox

Skins number 2,3,4 were downloaded from winamp.com. I would provide a link to each skin separately, but the search engine at winamp.com seems to be broken or something, so you'll have to do some searching on your own.

Needless to say, the sumea v2 skin kicks ass.
--

If there's someone out there who knows a beautiful+useful skin, would he/she be kind enough to share it with the rest of us? thanks!

PS: Sometimes, even if a skin isn't useful, you gotta have it.
posted by kchristidis at 1:20 PM on August 3, 2001

Hello, my name is starduck, and
This is my skin
posted by starduck at 1:37 PM on August 3, 2001

Sigh. If only multimedia hot keys were standard on keyboards. I love being able to control volume and playback using the keyboard.
posted by kathryn at 1:41 PM on August 3, 2001

Matt: you must be looking in the wrong places for a really usable but nice looking skin. i have the same criteria as you. function over form. the buttons and design must be clean. check these out and i gurantee you won't be sorry.

1)MozAmp2
2)WinAqua for WinAmp
3)Netscape 6 Amp
4)Century Amp

There are a bunch more but these are w/o a doubt some of the coolest and cleanest winamp skins out there.
posted by suprfli at 1:49 PM on August 3, 2001

I'm a fan of the xmms skins.
They work on the winamp as well as xmms.
Honourable mentions:


Ulrafina - download
Inverse - download

Ultrafina has a few variations. I find that all are very useable.
posted by the_ill_gino at 1:49 PM on August 3, 2001

i swear the MozAmp is not my fault. and i'm a little disappointed that it has nothing to do with the actual moz.
posted by moz at 2:12 PM on August 3, 2001

wow, suprfli and gino those skins were great!
posted by kchristidis at 2:32 PM on August 3, 2001

i use and love auriga, which I think is just as usable as the standard winamp skin, and way prettier to boot. it's available in various shades of blue too.
posted by chrisege at 2:40 PM on August 3, 2001

C'mon, guys, you didn't like the monster at the top? He's cute! Way cute!
posted by sonofsamiam at 3:18 PM on August 3, 2001

I'm really surprised at what y'all consider the "top of the line" WinAmp skins. I guess Mac users like me who play our mp3s with Audion are kinda spoiled -- there are lots of faces there that are a heck of a lot nicer, while still being supremely usable. And many that take up a lot less real estate. Too bad it doesn't do a "always on top" windows though...
posted by bcwinters at 3:52 PM on August 3, 2001

p.s. My last post was in no way meant as an invitation to Platform Wars (tm)... I'd just love it if some of y'all took a look at some of the great Audion faces like Elphin or Little Love for examples of great design...
posted by bcwinters at 3:54 PM on August 3, 2001

I hardly ever see my winamp window anymore these days, thanks to HotAmp's keyboard shortcuts.
posted by milov at 3:55 PM on August 3, 2001

Well, Winamp skins are all stuck with the same interface, button-locations, etc. Until 3.0, anyway. It's hard to make it more useable than the default...
posted by whatnotever at 4:16 PM on August 3, 2001

kathryn:

Try milov's HotAmp or Dreamkeys. Never used the former, but I love the latter. Has plugins for Winamp, ICQ, AIM, taking screenshots, and more. Free download. Quick, easy, tiny.
posted by gramcracker at 4:34 PM on August 3, 2001

wow, 25 comments and no one complained about the 6 point fonts? that's like 10 comments without hearing, "this seems like a story from the onion..."
posted by machaus at 8:01 PM on August 3, 2001

Here's the skin test for winamp. Install a skin, play a song, now have your phone ring, or your boss pop into your office/cube/box and start timing how long it takes to find the "pause" button.

Or, just push "c" on the keyboard.

(But I use the default skin, too.)
posted by endquote at 9:14 PM on August 3, 2001

i guarantee no one could have trouble finding the buttons on the sketchamp skin. not to everyone's tastes, but i find it to be pretty classy. oh and it goes great with schiele's embrace as a wallpaper too.
posted by titboy at 12:27 AM on August 4, 2001