Professional look user friendly apps

[aztrix]

i wish to make my app look professional and user friendly like say Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 looks. any options here?

[Hack]

Moved to General Developer

[Pino]

Options? What are you after?

Pino

[DeanMc]

Application design is one of the hardest parts of being a programmer. Generally it is an evolutionary process and something you will only get good at over time. For instance consider one of my projects that I wrote about here:

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=518314

(CodedFire is my old handle)

As you can see the design changed quite a lot over the lifetime of that thread. The best thing to do is come up with a design that is easy to navigate. I have seen too many designs that looked amazing but took a manual to figure out how to use them. This will lose you customers, FAST. I know a lot of people harp on about applications looking the same as current ones but this is untrue. Napster didn't follow standard design rules of its time and was a success. This is because it was easy to use.

Remember at the end of the day the idea of an application is to do something with information. If it does whatever its supposed to do correctly your halfway there. The next step is evolve your design so that your application does its thing in the fewest steps possible without compromising functionality. (This means hiding stuff in menu's is a no no).

Thats all ive got for you at the moment. Hope this helps.

[RhinoBull]

... Napster didn't follow standard design rules of its time and was a success. This is because it was easy to use...
For what it's worth there are no "stadards" - rather common sense and good taste.

I suppose you refer to "design" as GUI and it depends on type of app you're writing.
If it's a business app then your gui better be desined in the simplest way possible or people will get tired of flashy screens (plenty of those out there) and eventually stop using it.
If it is something like media player then you can ( and probably should) add some spice to it without going crazy I guess.

[DeanMc]

For what it's worth there are no "stadards" - rather common sense and good taste.


I know, there are STANDARDS though :). And they are built upon what you said common sense and good taste. Unofficial yes, important absolutely.

[Pino]

Actually I'm pretty sure windows releases officiall form design standards :)

Pino

[RhinoBull]

I know, there are STANDARDS though...
Who's standards? Each business has their own, though. But you know what? I'm done with this thread - arguments are poointless.

[DeanMc]

Yes, arguments are pointless. Ignorance is also equally as pointless. I do belive you are correct Pino but I would lean more towards asking your applications user base what they thought rather than going by a large companies standards. The main point it design is one of those things that you can know a lot about and still fail on. You will eventually get a style you are comfortable with and that is what you will use regardless.

I still say functionality first though!

[Pino]

Yep, not saying microsofts way is correct however they release standards on how to keep yuor app in tune with the rest of windows :)

Pino

[DeanMc]

I must dig them out. Il post if I can get hold of them.

[dilettante]

Windows XP - Guidelines for Applications (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/System/platform/pcdesign/XPguidelines.mspx)

Top Rules for the Windows Vista User Experience (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511327.aspx)

Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511258.aspx)

[aztrix]

wow great info peoples thanks very much.

[DeanMc]

Here Ya Go

[JuggaloBrotha]

Here Ya GoDo you by chance have the pic in the vista windows update's panel too?

[DeanMc]

I presume you mean this?

http://img32.picoodle.com/img/img32/3/1/1/f_Vsidebarm_76f233e.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/1/1/f_Vsidebarm_76f233e.jpg&srv=img32)

Unfortunately not. The original one I posted was actually made by me using PSP and some blending. Or did you mean something else.

[DeanMc]

Having said that, it would not be extremely hard to emulate, I mean here is a 5 minute job:

http://img37.picoodle.com/img/img37/3/1/1/f_Capture2m_7c18076.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/1/1/f_Capture2m_7c18076.jpg&srv=img37)

[JuggaloBrotha]

I presume you mean this?

http://img32.picoodle.com/img/img32/3/1/1/f_Vsidebarm_76f233e.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/1/1/f_Vsidebarm_76f233e.jpg&srv=img32)

Unfortunately not. The original one I posted was actually made by me using PSP and some blending. Or did you mean something else.Nope, I was referring to that one (except without the text/links on it), I'm horrible at graphics and art, that's why I was asking

[DeanMc]

I couldn't make it identical but I could make one like the one above for ya if you want?

[DeanMc]

EG, like the one from the PSP screen shot. I could try to remove the text from the vista one but it would be a static size image. This means that it would scale horribly but Il give it a shot if you want.

[JuggaloBrotha]

I've chatted with the client and the pic in post #17 will work fine, thanks for the offer though

[DeanMc]

Cool, well if you PM me with the dimensions of your application sidebar I will redo it to that spec, clean it up slightly and export as bitmap/gif/png as the picture in post 17 is only a low quality graphic.

I will have it done by 10pm GMT if you send over those dimensions.:check:

[techgnome]

Actually what they release are RECOMMENDED practices and GUIDELINES.... if you follow them or not is up to you. My last job's standards was to follow MS's lead, as their target user base is a heavy Office user types... here... not so much and the app doesn't follow your typical menus or layout styles... it heavily dependant on the legacy app its replacing, as well as how the app is going to be used. Drives me bonkers...

-tg

[DeanMc]

I do like the WPF approach though. Ive been playing with it at first and thought it was rubbish but the fact that it forces you to create your UI as a separate tier plus the speed at which one can write ZAMAL once you have learned it means that UI development is finally becoming less of a hack and slash affair. I intend to create some WPF centric articles shortly to demonstrate its prowess.

[techgnome]

Dean - let me know when you do that, I'd be interested. I've been toying with it and like some of the effects you can create fairly easily that wasn't possible pre-WPF.

-tg

[DeanMc]

Will do of course. I think WPF may be the technology that trumps for .NET in general after a few more releases and a bit of maturity.

JuggaloBrotha here is a better sidebar for you:

http://img37.picoodle.com/img/img37/3/1/2/f_Sidebarm_53d7cc3.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/1/2/f_Sidebarm_53d7cc3.jpg&srv=img37)

[aztrix]

what is WPF and how do i use it, where do i find it?

[Pino]

what is WPF and how do i use it, where do i find it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Presentation_Foundation

[chris128]

what is WPF and how do i use it, where do i find it?

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=570937

[RobDog888]

You need to know your target audience otherwise you have higher odds to fail.
If its a business app custom for a client, then you need to get feedback from its users and management on how they want it to flow and look. If you are a good communicator then you will succeed. You have to give the customer what they want or they wont use it or your services.