Q2 Asp.Net skinning

It’s that time of the year again and we’re getting ready for the next quarterly release here at telerik. This time we have a major visual update coming for the ASP.NET product line. Almost all skins will get a refresh – some a minor QA to bring back to original designs, others a more thorough facelift. Wanted to get back to you even before the beta release next week with a sneak view of what’s coming so you can have your say. Here’s the major planned changes in skinning:

1. Black skin preserves its general look only gets a bit less….well, black – after feedback from you we decided to brighten up the shades a bit to improve on readability.
   
2. Default 2006, our much coveted original default skin will be replaced by a much needed simple gray skin – no color, no frills, a simple look to fit any design. The new skin, codenamed “Gray” is designed to seamlessly fit in any existing apps you might have already deployed using the Default 2006 look.
3. Inox gets a whole new look – general colors and metal feel will be preserved, but all interfaces will be thoroughly improved to reflect a more modern look.
   
4. Mac skin, much to our surprise, will be made obsolete, after feedback from our skinning survey indicating no one is using it…
5. The Telerik skin will get a thorough redesign. General color scheme is preserved, only the green gets further away from the signature “telerik” green in favor of a more standard color fitting more of your scenarios.
   
6. WebBlue gets only a minor retouch to freshen up the looks without any breaking changes.

All other skins will get the usual round of polishing/bug fixing. Much of our concern during the redesign has been preserving the general feel of our skins so that the new look fits in your existing applications. Ideally, we wanted to update the skins to keep them in line both with their original look and with the latest in interface design trends so that simply by upgrading an existing app you get a slicker look. We do realize in some cases visual discrepancies between the old and new look might be a nuisance, but we hope you will appreciate the fresher, more modern look.