GUI Design Question

24 Jan 2006 7:48 AM

Dave

What books, articles, guides, etc. would you recommend on good GUI design
principles and practices? Thanks.

Dave

24 Jan 2006 12:02 PM

Martin

Just "steal" from Microsoft Office. There are a few very good reasons to do
this:
1) Microsoft has invested a lot of time and research to make it a good
interface.
2) The user will feel "at home" right away in your app.
3) The controls supplied with VS2005 are all in line with that design
4) Gives your app a sophisticated and professional "look and feel"

Don't you hate it when you start an app where everything looks and works
"different"?

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"Dave" <x@spamtrap.com> wrote in message
news:bZkBf.14001$H71.6671@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com...
> What books, articles, guides, etc. would you recommend on good GUI design
> principles and practices? Thanks.
>
> Dave
>
>
>

24 Jan 2006 5:24 PM

Larry Lard

Martin wrote:
Show quoteHide quote

> "Dave" <x@spamtrap.com> wrote in message
> news:bZkBf.14001$H71.6671@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com...
> > What books, articles, guides, etc. would you recommend on good GUI design
> > principles and practices? Thanks.
>
> Just "steal" from Microsoft Office. There are a few very good reasons to do
> this:
> 1) Microsoft has invested a lot of time and research to make it a good
> interface.
> 2) The user will feel "at home" right away in your app.
> 3) The controls supplied with VS2005 are all in line with that design
> 4) Gives your app a sophisticated and professional "look and feel"
>
> Don't you hate it when you start an app where everything looks and works
> "different"?

Mind you, that's going to happen to everyone when Office 12 is released
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:)

--
Larry Lard
Replies to group please

24 Jan 2006 11:16 PM

Ken Halter

"Martin" <x@y.com> wrote in message
news:eYL7I4NIGHA.2928@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Just "steal" from Microsoft Office. There are a few very good reasons to
> do this:
> 1) Microsoft has invested a lot of time and research to make it a good
> interface.
> 2) The user will feel "at home" right away in your app.
> 3) The controls supplied with VS2005 are all in line with that design
> 4) Gives your app a sophisticated and professional "look and feel"
>
> Don't you hate it when you start an app where everything looks and works
> "different"?

Just don't get too carried away with Tab controls ;-) Remember... One row of
tabs is plenty (say that until you believe it <g>)

MS is the star of the "User Interface Hall of Shame" in the Tabbed Dialog
department.
(http://homepage.mac.com/bradster/iarchitect/tabs.htm)

--
Ken Halter - MS-MVP-VB (visiting from VB6 world) - http://www.vbsight.com
Please keep all discussions in the groups..

25 Jan 2006 11:33 AM

Martin

Hehehe, yes I absolutely agree with you on that.

But speaking of tabs... have you sen MultiEdit (my favorite code editor)? I
think that one tops the ranks of "too many tabs" ;-)

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"Ken Halter" <Ken_Halter@Use_Sparingly_Hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:OiNr%23wTIGHA.2036@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> "Martin" <x@y.com> wrote in message
> news:eYL7I4NIGHA.2928@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>> Just "steal" from Microsoft Office. There are a few very good reasons to
>> do this:
>> 1) Microsoft has invested a lot of time and research to make it a good
>> interface.
>> 2) The user will feel "at home" right away in your app.
>> 3) The controls supplied with VS2005 are all in line with that design
>> 4) Gives your app a sophisticated and professional "look and feel"
>>
>> Don't you hate it when you start an app where everything looks and works
>> "different"?
>
> Just don't get too carried away with Tab controls ;-) Remember... One row
> of tabs is plenty (say that until you believe it <g>)
>
> MS is the star of the "User Interface Hall of Shame" in the Tabbed Dialog
> department.
> (http://homepage.mac.com/bradster/iarchitect/tabs.htm)
>
> --
> Ken Halter - MS-MVP-VB (visiting from VB6 world) - http://www.vbsight.com
> Please keep all discussions in the groups..
>

24 Jan 2006 1:57 PM

Carlos J. Quintero [VB MVP]

Hi Dave,

Start with the basics:

Windows XP - Guidelines for Applications
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/Resources/windowsxp/default.mspx

And then, books, web sites and newsletters. The greatest gurus are:

Alan Cooper (Windows apps)
http://www.cooper.com/content/insights/cooper_books.asp

His book "About Face" is a classic and a must.

Jacob Nielsen (Web sites)
http://www.useit.com/

--

Best regards,

Carlos J. Quintero

MZ-Tools: Productivity add-ins for Visual Studio
You can code, design and document much faster:
http://www.mztools.com

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"Dave" <x@spamtrap.com> escribió en el mensaje
news:bZkBf.14001$H71.6671@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com...
> What books, articles, guides, etc. would you recommend on good GUI design
> principles and practices? Thanks.
>
> Dave
>
>
>

24 Jan 2006 6:35 PM

Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]

"Dave" <x@spamtrap.com> schrieb:
> What books, articles, guides, etc. would you recommend on good GUI design
> principles and practices?

Official Guidelines for User Interface Developers and Designers
<URL:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnwue/html/welcome.asp>

User Interface Design and Development
<URL:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnanchor/html/anch_uidesigndev.asp>

Windows XP Visual Styles:

Windows XP - Guidelines for Applications
<URL:http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/windowsxp/downloads/default.mspx>

--
M S Herfried K. Wagner
M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
V B <URL:http://classicvb.org/petition/>

2 Feb 2006 6:45 AM

Dave

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I will check them all out.