Hi guys! I am in the middle of working on an address-book program and would like some constructive criticism on the layout and design of my forms. I will include some screenshots below.
Thanks in advance and please don't be too harsh!
First this is an image of my main window, with no contacts in the central contact list:
Last edited by dom_stapleton; May 22nd, 2008 at 01:22 PM.
Reason: Updated image with new changes
I use Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition.
If my post has been helpful, please rate it, unless you don't believe in Karma... which actually I don't!
A quick search box that is ALWAYS visible (and an app wide hotkey to jump to it) would be a good thing to have in a program like this..
Also it looks like the image you are using is stretched pretty bad. Looks blurry. I know you always lose some quality when saving a screenshot to a jpg or gif, but I think its probably a little blurry anyway right?
OK, I've added a Quick Search combo box to the MenuStrip. The text inside the combo box disappears when it is focused and returns when it is left. I will add the searching code later. Have you any more suggestions?
PS: Updated the image in the first post.
I use Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition.
If my post has been helpful, please rate it, unless you don't believe in Karma... which actually I don't!
well like I said, add a form wide hotkey to set focus to the search box, that is always a handy feature that is underused but really appreciated by those who discover it.
I might have more suggestions if you post more screenshots (like ones with data entered in)
yes, split the icon in two and use the left for men and the right for women. Visual representations are nice. If possible, you could even have a list of custom icons to choose from or let the user assign a photo.
I have already got the features you suggested, although, they're not visible from the screenshots I have up. The user can select a gender for each contact. Depending on the gender, either a woman icon or a man icon is shown. The user can also choose an image for the contact which can be used instead.
I use Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition.
If my post has been helpful, please rate it, unless you don't believe in Karma... which actually I don't!
only other suggestion i can give at this point then is a drop-down menu that lets you configure the screen color. It highly resembles a couple of other windows programs already available due to the standard coloring scheme.
One suggestion (often overlooked) would be also to adjust your windows fonts to large and extra large (also set your DPI to 120 from the default of 96). This all can be done in the display properties menu.
You would be surprised how bad an app can look when you adjust these things (sadly even some Microsoft applications suffer from this)
Most people leave their defaults alone, but if you want to maximize compatibility, its always a good idea to at least see what your app looks like with these settings adjusted.
I know this thread is a good few months old now but why discard a carcass when it can still be used! Just thought I'd upload an updated image of my program. I recently did a lot of work on making the UI feel more Vista-like.
Any constructive criticism is appreciated!
I must also add; I'm just looking for criticism about the appearence of the UI. I'm still working on some of the features and I'll set up a seperate thread for suggestions for these.
I use Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition.
If my post has been helpful, please rate it, unless you don't believe in Karma... which actually I don't!
I don't like the borderless edge of the bottom graphic and the "alphabet strip" you have. It looks like the alphabet strip is covering it because of the lack of border.
I've added a border to the left and right edges of the bottom graphic, but it is difficult to keep this consistent as the image is stretched. I will be replacing it with my own version soon, which will not have this problem. I've also uploaded a screenshot with the Index bar hidden. It can be hidden/shown from the menu.
EDIT: And I've rather stupidly saved the screenshot as a JPEG instead of PNG so sorry for the terrible quality!
I use Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition.
If my post has been helpful, please rate it, unless you don't believe in Karma... which actually I don't!
I know this thread is a good few months old now but why discard a carcass when it can still be used! Just thought I'd upload an updated image of my program. I recently did a lot of work on making the UI feel more Vista-like.
Any constructive criticism is appreciated!
I must also add; I'm just looking for criticism about the appearence of the UI. I'm still working on some of the features and I'll set up a seperate thread for suggestions for these.
what about your 90% user base that thinks the default black vista theme is not only ugly, but hard on the eyes? Does your app support the theme changing?
It does now! The user can select the following toolbar colour schemes:
I am also extending these colour schemes from the rest of the application. And I've replaced the MenuStrip control with an old-fashioned MainMenu control as I think it looks more native to Windows.
I use Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition.
If my post has been helpful, please rate it, unless you don't believe in Karma... which actually I don't!
Oh, and I'm not sure what the Janus controls are, MrNorth. All of the controls you can see in the screenshots are straight from the .NET Framework (I have overriden a couple of the controls to add extra things, like the empty label in the ListView, for example).
I use Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition.
If my post has been helpful, please rate it, unless you don't believe in Karma... which actually I don't!
I like that much better than the black one. While it's not a big issue, does it auto-change the colors when windows color scheme changes? There are color constants you can use as colors that are basically shortcuts to whatever the current system color is for a certain item.
I've finished working on the quick search box; it now works in an identical way to the search feature in Windows Explorer in Vista. As you type it hides all of the contacts that don't match the criteria you entered.
For example, if you type "s", it hides all the contacts that don't have an "s" somewhere in their details. As you keep typing it updates the list accordingly.
PS: Thanks to kleinma for the suggestion, sorry it took so long!
Last edited by dom_stapleton; May 21st, 2008 at 09:45 AM.
I use Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition.
If my post has been helpful, please rate it, unless you don't believe in Karma... which actually I don't!
@ Lord_Orwell: The program looks practically identical without Vista Aero turned on. It's only really the non-client area of the window that looks different. I check to see what the program looks like in a Windows 9x-style shell occassionally and it doesn't look too bad.
Oh, and the search box is focused by pressing the F3 key.
Last edited by dom_stapleton; May 22nd, 2008 at 01:10 PM.
I use Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition.
If my post has been helpful, please rate it, unless you don't believe in Karma... which actually I don't!
well it all depends on what controls you use. aero glass isn't just the transparent borders. it controls the appearance of a lot of buttons to give them shiny highlights.
I really like the last few images you have posted. It's well on it's way to looking like a native Vista application, especially with the addition of this wizard.
The only thing that I can fault in your 'Wizard' is the text and icon. A few things really:
Some of the wizard just have the extended glass into the client area with no text, have you considered that?
The icon looks out of place in the fact that it seems too low quality to be there, maybe increase the size a bit or remove it completely
The text is not anti-aliased nor does it have any glow, it looks a little inset to the page in fact. To make it look totally realistic I'd try to simply add a white glow behind the text
Apart from that, great work at doing the system-scheme matching, really I wish I had the time to work towards making my apps look like that.
I originally planned to try and implement the glow behind the text on the glass area, but as yet I haven't been able to figure out how this can be done.
I have added an offset copy of the text in white behind the text to make it a bit more readable when the wizard is over a dark background, but this was only meant to be temporary.
Do you know how I could implement the text glow? I'm currently scouring the Internet but, so far, to no avail...
I use Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition.
If my post has been helpful, please rate it, unless you don't believe in Karma... which actually I don't!
Excellent! Thanks for that, RudiVisser! I searched for the DrawThemeTextEx API and it does exactly what I wanted! I found an example in C# so after a bit of decoding this is what it looks like now:
PS: Just in case you want to use the glowing text in your application too, this thread of mine contains the solution:
This is another screenshot. It's a contact form and is used to create new contacts and edit existing ones. The large button on the top-right displays the contact's image which can be chosen from the user's computer; it's displaying the default image at the moment. Also, the green bar at the top is syncronised with the rest of the program, like in my main window (see post #20 above).
Again, any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated and really help me with the evolution of this program.
PS: Just as a side note, this window is the one I'm least happy with in my program so the more suggestions the better.
Last edited by dom_stapleton; Jun 4th, 2008 at 05:48 PM.
I use Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition.
If my post has been helpful, please rate it, unless you don't believe in Karma... which actually I don't!
This would require a major window overhaul, but you don't really know which part of a person's information is going to be important for your user and they ought to be able to control what information is presented to them. I have thrown together a quick example of what i am talking about here:
You could also implement it the way access does, with the little plusses on the left that expand it. I don't know what your sub-windows look like, but you should have some method of controlling the main window. For example some people would rather have the phone number up front while others would want the "notes" (like at a bank where they all up yo business "how's the wife" stuff).
Just an idea.
Last edited by Lord Orwell; Jun 4th, 2008 at 06:26 PM.
Thanks for your post, Lord_Orwell. You've provided some good ideas and I'm going to try and test some of them out. I'll post the results here.
As to your post, CodedFire, I have attached an example of an Aero Wizard form. I hope it gives you enough information to be able to adapt it for yourself.
I use Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition.
If my post has been helpful, please rate it, unless you don't believe in Karma... which actually I don't!
If my post has been helpful, please rate it, unless you don't believe in Karma... which actually I don't!
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Originally Posted by dom_stapleton
I wish I had the time to work towards making my apps look like that.
