Dev Log # 4

After approximately 6 hours, I finished another session of improving the OS. This session focused on refining LumiOS’s look and feel. I also added two new apps - Browser and Weather. Overall, this update took me lots of time to fix small details.

New Apps:

• Browser: A searching tool that allows you to search on the web (incomplete)
• Weather app: Real-time weather tracker using OpenWeather API, showing current and future temperature, visibility, wind, and so on.

Updates on Existing Apps:

• Widget: Added a weather widget; link the widget to the Weather app.

New Features:

• Visual & Design:
  • Unified color system with accent glow effects.
  • New glass morphism layers.
  • Standardized spacing scale and border radius system.
  • Defined consistent typography sizes, weights, and letter spacing.
  • Added maximizing and minimizing animations.
• Components:
  • Desktop icons now have a different lift and glow on hover.
  • Buttons and menus use smooth transform feedback.
  • Context menus show accent bars and slide‑in animations.
  • Window controls have larger hit areas and ring hover effects.
  • Start menu and quick settings redesigned with better padding and hover states.
• Lock Screen:
  • New layout with large time display and username.
  • Added unlock animation.
  • Complete CSS and JS restructure for smoother motion.
• Taskbar:
  • Added a search bar that lets you quickly find and open specific apps.
  • Taskbar buttons have scale and glow animations.

Challenges solved:

When I tried adding new ideas to enhance the overall visual appeal, I encountered a serious issue: the overlay system and window management stopped working again. The wallpaper no longer aligned with the desktop, and the window dragging function broke as well. I started looking for the problem but couldn’t find the cause, so I decided to restore everything and proceed more carefully.

Bugs:

• The browser app is not working. It loaded external websites directly inside an iframe. Many sites block being embedded through CSP or X-Frame-Options, so the page often stayed blank, or the navigation controls stopped working. I tried loading external sites directly in an iframe, which does not work. I also tried routing page loads through the local proxy, but the app still depends on websites that often block embedding.

Future Plan:

Fixing the browser app will be the first thing I do in the future. I will also try to add micro-interactions such as window snapping.