I for one totally hate the layout of iMessage, and skype ... which this seems to be a clone of.
I always find myself with both iMessage and Skype having to always check I'm in the correct chat window, this layout to me doesn't automatically say "Hey you're talking to Mike", I have to stop and visually verify each time.
Looking at his design, with almost zero contrast, it would be orders of magnitude worse trying to work out which person you chatting to at a glance.
I would honesty stop using adium if this become the default UI.
I always find myself with both iMessage and Skype having to always check I'm in the correct chat window, this layout to me doesn't automatically say "Hey you're talking to Mike", I have to stop and visually verify each time.
Looking at his design, with almost zero contrast, it would be orders of magnitude worse trying to work out which person you chatting to at a glance.
I would honesty stop using adium if this become the default UI.