Creating Skinnable Applications: An Overview

DirectSkin from Stardock Lets Software Companies Manage The User Interface

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Last week, Stardock released Version 4.2 of its DirectSkin solution for developers. Simultaneously, several corporate clients announced that they have joined the growing number of companies that have adopted DirectSkin as their standard for creating new and more attractive user interfaces for their products.

DirectSkin is an ActiveX Control or OCX that allows software developers to make their programs "skinnable." DirectSkin works with all the major programming languages (Visual Basic, C++, Delphi, VC, any language that supports COM objects.) Once integrated, developers can use any skin developed for the WindowBlinds standard to give their application a distinctive look or can allow their users to choose from among several looks.

Those not familiar with DirectSkin usually ask two questions. Firstly, why would a corporation need to license a tool like DirectSkin for their products? Secondly, why has DirectSkin emerged as the development tool of choice for so many companies around the world? This article is intended to answer both of these questions in a somewhat non-technical vein. Future articles will offer a more technical perspective.

Why do software companies need to be concerned with their product's image? Not longer ago, consumers only demanded functionality from their software. As the number of software products has increased, however, competition has intensified. Given the existence of products with similar features, consumers will select the one that has the most attractive, user-friendly interface. Recent history is full of success stories of products that have won market-share because of their distinctive looks. Winamp from Nullsoft is one example.

Given that a product's image can increase sales and market-share, what holds companies back? The single greatest obstacle was the amount of programming time that it took to change the look of programs. DirectSkin integrates quickly and easily, with as little as four lines of code.

V Communications has been creating solutions for users of personal computers since 1986. One of their best-selling products is PowerDesk, an enhanced version of the Windows File Manager that offers more features and functionality. With Version 6 of PowerDesk in development, the company decided it was time for a new look.

"For V Communications, Inc. (VCOM), DirectSkin was a way to give a new and exciting look to its soon to be released PowerDesk Pro 6, one of the best known and most widely used file management utilities", said Frank van Gilluwe, President of V Communications, Inc. “We are delighted with the ease with which DirectSkin integrated with our software and with the extensive variety of skins available. We believe this will truly improve our customer’s experience with our product as well as allow them to easily change the look and feel of the product to their own particular tastes.” concluded Mr. van Gilluwe.

Ipswitch faced an even greater challenge. Ipswitch has distinct products for Network Monitoring, File Transfer and Instant Messaging. The challenge was to maintain a branded identity across these product lines. DirectSkin provided the answer.

Patrick Loring, Business Development Manager at Ipswitch, Inc. put it this way “Ipswitch was familiar with DirectSkin through our development staff. The decision was made to integrate DirectSkin into several Ipswitch products, and potentially others in the future, to achieve a consistent look, feel and set of features.”

It is clear that for many companies, an enhanced product image can result in increased sales. Let us look at the reasons that they choose DirectSkin.

Why is DirectSkin the solution of choice for so many companies? Each of our customers has their own set of reasons for selecting DirectSkin, but three of the most common are: The vast number of existent skins and practicing artists in the Stardock skinning community, the ease with which DirectSkin integrates into already developed applications and the assurance of maximum compatibility with other applications.

The number of skins available on the WinCustomize site (https://www.wincustomize.com) is approaching three thousand. Any of these skins is compatible with DirectSkin and may be used subject to the author's giving permission. If a company wants to create their own look, they can use SkinStudio (https://www.stardock.com/products/skinstudio/) to create a new skin. As a third option, many visual design studios offer custom user interface design. Among the top studios are Pixtudio (http://www.pixtudio.com), The Skins Factory (http://www.theskinsfactory.com/) and Skinplant (http://www.skinplant.com/) Recently, Ian Black of Skinplant prepared several new looks for the same application and you can see his concepts here:

The next reason that companies prefer DirectSkin is the ease of integration. Unlike other products that require developers to rewrite their application, DirectSkin integrates easily and quickly. This reduces costs, saves development time and lets developers focus on their products.

Chuck Stoner, Senior Principal Engineer at Banctec offered this about his experience integrating DirectSkin into the Banctec family of products, “Your tools make it possible for me to design products and applications that function in an efficient user-friendly manner without stressing about the appearance. With DirectSkin, an architect is free to design the mechanics knowing the look and feel will be awesome. Once an application or even a suite of applications has been completed the appearance can be prototyped over and over without additional development. Normally when multiple developers work on a single project it is difficult to achieve a coherent presentation. With your products, that is no longer the issue it once was."

DirectSkin is able to utilize the extensive library of WindowBlinds skins, because DirectSkin and WindowBlinds share a common code base. This means that developers can be assured of the highest degree of compatability, since WindowBlinds is used by millions of consumer and corporate customers.

Neil Banfield, Stardock’s Senior Development Manager for DirectSkin summarized Stardock's strategy with DirectSkin in this way: “Our goal with DirectSkin was to provide software companies with a tool that would allow them to give their products an attractive, skinnable interface. We also wanted this tool to be easy to use and simple to integrate. By using DirectSkin, developers can greatly reduce the time that it takes to bring a product to market.”

To learn more about DirectSkin, please follow the link provided. The DirectSkin site features a Demo version available for download, technical information and license options. For additional information or to purchase DirectSkin, please email corpsales@stardock.com

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Could this be used for .Net Framework applications? Could I use it for my .Net applications and give them the ability to use WB skins even if the user didn't have WB installed? What would happen if they did have WB istalled?

Cool stuff.....

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CarpeThis, DirectSkin provides support for .Net applications. The DirectSkin OCX is integrated into your application and requires no special software on the user's desktop,beyond your application.

If the user does have WindowBlinds installed you can choose whether to have your skin override the system skin or to use it for a consistent look.

If you are interested in using DirectSkin in your development, please feel free to email me at corpsales@stardock.com for an evaluation license and a .NET demo app.

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A very interesting enterprise level of marketing product mix! Am looking forward no less than its sucessful implementation of multinational companies all over the world...!!!

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