Using bold style in applications is very bad idea. It looks pretty bad.
And about the grid/table... If user wants to see data that is on right it must use scrollbar to scroll right. I personally don't like it. It would be good if i could see all of the data without scrolling by horizontally. If in your case the number of tables is always 6 then i would increase the width of the main window to loose the horizontal scrollbar. I would redesign this all, because like you said: it really looks basic. Remove bold text, dont use too much colors. Realign the textboxes description text (i mean Users ID, Username etc)..
Then post new screenshot.
Jamie, opinions are like something else we all have. While I agree that your code is going to be the most important part of your app, visual's are a subjective thing. Women, for example, have totally different tastes then men and usually like color. My wife (a 34 year COBOL programmer) liked your interface, and I didn't dislike it. I don't like to scroll right or left though, but sometimes it can't be avoided.
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Is VB consuming your life, and is that a bad thing??
Jamie , I hope you got the idea about a good program now from the comments
Think of Nice looking misile control program that send the misile in wrong place
Anyway few things to point:
1. You havent set the icon in the form, so your Form looks cool apart from the Icon
2. there is a mistake in the note above the grid, one space missed between beable -> be able
3. Use a meaningful value for User Level.
Of course you will know what level 1 or 2 means, but better to give a meaningful level ID. like Administrator, Manager, Sales Person, etc...
If you are using a DB, better to keep sepereate table for user level which maps different authentication to each level, as well as sepereate rights to each user, like which machine accessible, which functions , etc.
4. The image looks very nice, except it doesnt match the Purpose of the form.
5. Remove the Select Button at the bottom, use mouse click instead. A mouse icon like a hand (like the one when we hoover over a link in browser) looks ok.
And apart from all these, make sure your code works ok. Necessary error capturing and error messages are essential. Useres are dumb. So plan for worst and hope for the best.
I actually like the general use of color, especially the yellow/blue of each text box. For an administrative dialog, I think something distinctive, at least, fits.
However, I don't really like the design from a usability standpoint. It seems like the buttons are too large, for one. As an Admin, I wouldn't be expecting ginormous, ultra-friendly buttons, but would be expecting something more suited to my status as a power user. The red/green scheme is interesting, but perhaps distracts too much from the meat of the form. I've always thought that the use of the form should match the flow of the controls, but here the flow of the controls is nearly in the opposite order: colorful buttons, then less colorful text boxes for data entry, and then the colorless data grid.
When I looked at your form, I immediately saw the yellow boxes, and then my eye switched to the colorful buttons. I didn't really see the guts of the form, which appear to be the data grid and the text boxes. From a general artistic standpoint, I find your Form pleasing aesthetically. However, from a usability standpoint, I think the art should be toned down to provide the user with a very usable and above all simple dialog.
In that same vein the picture does look nice, except that it appears to have nothing to do with the rest of the program. It really helps bring the rest of the colors and patterns together aesthetically, but not for any usability purpose. They're like a bouquet of flowers on the corner of a boss's desk. Maybe one flower looks nice, inobtrusive, and cheery, but the desk should be a place of work and not a place to look at pretty flowers.
I really do like your form artistically. But, I don't think it aids the user as a UI, when that's (in my mind) the primary purpose of a UI.
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. Bertrand Russell
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