VirtualBox UI

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Keir
Posts: 2
Joined: 5. Nov 2017, 05:29

VirtualBox UI

Post by Keir »

Hello!

I would probably fall under the hobbyist VirtualBox user but because part of my work involves interface design, I thought I would have a look at the VirtualBox UI and put together some idea's.

Disclaimer: Don't worry, I am fully aware the VirtualBox is cross-platform and so you should presume that on the different platforms, it would respect the host OS' design guidelines - at least with regards to the main components such as the window chrome and form elements.

I'll just cover some of the thoughts that went into what I have put together.

Firstly, I find the Machine Tools and Global Tools buttons a bit clunky and confusing to use (they create buttons to the left which can then individually be closed for example).
The first thing I wanted to deal with was improving those.

I decided that Snapshots and the Details screens (from within Machine Tools) should simply be placed within the main window as a tab when a machine is selected.

With regards to the Global Tools button, although I haven't implemented this in the designs, there are (currently) only two buttons within it so it would make sense to then split the Global Tools button into two buttons (Media Manager and Network Manager) on the main toolbar.

Secondly, the list of machines (sidebar).
I had created a bunch of OS icons for a personal project I'm working on so I brought those in which I think work well.
I also moved the 32/64-Bit label from the icon and added it as a badge on the right hand side of the list (these could then be essentially resized to simply display 32 or 64 if the sidebar is shrunk beyond a certain point).
I figured that the machine status in the sidebar is secondary information (although I'm sure in a work-environment, it's more important), whilst still important, so I reduced the size of the text but made use of colour on the icons to display the machine state (I'll admit the green could be a bit stronger) so at a quick glance, the colour alone will let you quickly view the status of a machine.
I haven't done anything with the design of machine groups yet.

I took the preview image and added that underneath the selected machine in the sidebar. With multiple machines selected, I would keep the behaviour as VirtualBox currently manages it and display them on the right with the basic machine information for the selected machines.

Thirdly, as the main pane within the VirtualBox window seems to be fairly context-aware, I thought it would make sense to place the machine configuration within that pane rather than the separate window that is currently used.
Essentially, it makes more sense to me to have everything relating to the selected machine in one place.

Lastly, just to note, the window width I based these designs from is the default width VirtualBox uses when first run.
Also, for the taller windows, they are tall purely to show the full content of that screen but would in reality obviously be scrollable where necessary.

As I mentioned at the start, I'm a hobbyist user of VirtualBox so I may have overlooked something obvious so do take that into account ;)

Anyway, just something I wanted to put together to try and give something back to the community as I love tinkering around in a multitude of operating systems and VirtualBox is my favourite application to use to do so.

Cheers!

Main Window
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Machine Selected (Configuration)
Image

Machine Selected (Details)
Image

Machine Selected (Snapshots - Attributes)
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Machine Selected (Snapshots - Information)
Image
MartinDachev
Posts: 8
Joined: 28. Nov 2017, 21:15

Re: VirtualBox UI

Post by MartinDachev »

I would love to see a UI similar to this. I think UI is important.
N0YB
Posts: 36
Joined: 20. Sep 2012, 18:55

Re: VirtualBox UI

Post by N0YB »

Nice! Hope your suggestions are implemented.
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