The MooseTrout Sakai Skin is based on the following main principles:

• Effective use of depth, color, and visual spacing leads to increased usability.
• All tool "panes" should be designed like windows: title bar, menu bar, content area, and status bar. This will allow for minimization ("venetian blinding"), maximization, xmlhttprequest status cues, as well as a clear demarcation of what content on a page might be changed by xmlhttprequest-type calls.
• In order to increase ease of changing of colors, the smallest possible color-set has been used. That color set currently includes 5 shades of the primary color (yes, I would like to get this down by one or two if possible), two shades of a contrasting color, a warning color, and 8 shades of grey, as well as white and black.