[Devel-conf] Fwd: Re: How to build a quality GUI!

[Michael Shigorin]

	Здравствуйте.
Извиняюсь за спам, мож "для записок" сгодится.

----- Forwarded message from Scott James Remnant <scott/ubuntu.com> -----

Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 20:03:20 +0100
From: Scott James Remnant <scott/ubuntu.com>
To: The Sounder <sounder/lists.no-name-yet.com>
Subject: Re: How to build a quality GUI!

On Tue, 2005-08-16 at 19:41 +0200, Emil Oppeln-Bronikowski wrote:

>  http://toastytech.com/guis/uirant.html -- follow this steps. :-)
> 
Though this is largely a joke, there's a few points on here I'd actually
like to reply to:

 * Always use obscure or poorly drawn graphics for your tool bar
   buttons, and never put text on them.

Actually I tend to find that a toolbar button that requires text is a
perfect example of one with obscure or poorly drawn graphics.  Improve
the graphic so it's obvious, and get rid of the text.  Or if you have
too many similar buttons, get rid of some!

A good toolbar has a small number of obvious buttons.

The addition of text is generally useful for Fitt's law, ie. making the
button bigger and easier to hit with the mouse; so should be limited to
the first button or two.


 * Avoid including a preferences or options dialog. Instead, let the
   user use the standard OS provided text editor or an editor of their
   choosing to edit text configuration files. .

Avoid including a preferences or options dialog.  Instead make your
software just work!  Preferences are often a sign of poorly designed UI;
though not always.


 * Begin coding the guts of the program immediately. Designing the UI
   can come later in the development process.

Personally this is exactly how I design software, because the UI is the
hard bit.  The guts should be modular and flexible enough to fit around
any UI (because after all, one writes them as a library for all types of
UI).


Scott
-- 
Scott James Remnant
scott/ubuntu.com

----- End forwarded message -----

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