What do you think of my GUI so far?

[Tegan]

Just about ready to release my program for beta testers. I need some constructive input on my GUI.

--->>> here is a link to the screenshots
http://www.basic-ware.com/Screenshots/

The program name is blurred out for right now as I'm awaiting my Trademark.

[Bruce Fox]

Great job

Only thing I saw was on the 'Help' button (main.jpg), the word Help wasn't centered (nting that you were using '...' seemed to offset slightly - minor I know (personaly, I'd loose the '...' (dots) as they don't (in this case) indicate truncation of sorts)

[Hack]

Outstanding. Did you use skinning for your background or did you do the color blending etc all through native VB code?

[tux_newbie]

great work good luck are u releasing it as gpl or properitary??

[jeevan]

Great Job,

[jeevan]

Great Job

i am trying to generate a menu bar or submenus as Tegan did.
Can anyone or Tegan help me to do this.

Regards,
Jeevan

[Mark Gambo]

Nice work!!

and

Did you use skinning for your background or did you do the color blending etc all through native VB code?

[Jumpercables]

Nice Job!

How do you add icons/pictures into the drop down menus?

[tHa-gRiM]

Select an your criteria to begin..

That makes no sense but GJ on the skin

[penagate]

Not bad. Could be made more modern looking. The bog standard grey does not go with your deep blue at all: white would be a much better choice there. Application of visual styles (using a common controls manifest) is always a good thing. Frames are OK, but not great IMO, you can achieve a more modern, clean look using single pixel lines. You also may want to consider trying another font such as Tahoma (Windows design guidelines standard) to replace MS Sans Serif, which is in a word, boring. Remember that adequate spacing is essential for a clean layout - your controls are generally too close together especially in this picture, and the buttons on the toolbar. And instead of approximating the background colour for checkbox captions, you can remove all the text from them and use a Label instead: they can have true transparent backgrounds.

Hope that assists you a bit

[RhinoBull]

Not to spoil the party ... however ... there is some inconsistency: rendered background and ordinary buttons/other controls to begin with... If you create some sort of theme then you should "go all the way" and apply it throughout your entire app...
Nice job otherwise.

[Tegan]

Thanks for the advice and all the praise. I use no skinning methods just native vb code and quite the trickery.

Their needs to be some consistency issues worked out and some spacing problems I agree.

[moeur]

One thing you might want to check is what your forms look like at other screen resolutions and color depths and font sizes.

People often develop something only on one computer, but the first time someone looks at it in another environment everything gets messed up.

[Tegan]

One thing you might want to check is what your forms look like at other screen resolutions and color depths and font sizes.

People often develop something only on one computer, but the first time someone looks at it in another environment everything gets messed up.

Sure thing on that one. I deal with thoose kind of issues almost daily when designing websites.

[ZeBula8]

the praise:

beautiful job -

the soft blues are really eye appealing...

and now the criticism:

aside from this - how is the performance of your app? Beauty is the first step, but above all, functionality is the next tier....

[Bruce Fox]

.... aside from this - how is the performance of your app? Beauty is the first step, but above all, functionality is the next tier....

Hi ZeBula8,
Valid point, however, at this stage I think the intention was for GUI feedback as per the Subject


Regards,

[RhinoBull]

... but above all, functionality is the next tier....

I thought it's the first ???

[ZeBula8]

You've got me there, Rhino;

Functionality is the foremost -

[RhinoBull]

I hoped you'd say that!

[dee-u]

It would help if you could remove or replace those VB6.0 icons...

[Tegan]

I have designed some better icons however I havent compiled it yet so they are not showing in the program.

VB doesnt like 32bit fancy icons so I have to use some tricks from VBAccelerator site.

The program is functioning good so far. Just running into some redraw errors and what not at the moment.

All the functions - (click, drag, resize, edit, rich text) are created dynamically and to determine specifics we use alot of the properties tag features.

We might have like 6 different properties seperated by a comma in an objects tag that are completely dynamic and can change on the fly.

[zach1188]

Great job. It really shows off the visual aspect of vb. But as rhino and ZeBula8 said, it doesn't do anyone any good for it to look pretty if it doesn't function well. Thats like a sports car, with flames, and all sorts of visual upgrades, that doesn't have an engine.

[cssriraman]

Good Job. The alignment of Label with text box and label with combo box should be adjusted. They are not straight perfectly. I know this are minor issues.

Anyway, Great work!

[Andrew G]

Cool
One prob
In the design window it has a very very large space for the time in the status bar.

[Tegan]

***Update***

Here a few new screenshots. I will be implementing your GUI suggestions in my time away from coding.

My whole life right now is this program.

Here is the updated links...
http://www.basic-ware.com/Screenshots/new1.jpg
http://www.basic-ware.com/Screenshots/new2.jpg
http://www.basic-ware.com/Screenshots/new3.jpg
http://www.basic-ware.com/Screenshots/new4.jpg
http://www.basic-ware.com/Screenshots/new5.jpg
http://www.basic-ware.com/Screenshots/new6.jpg

If I dont reply back in 6 or 7 hours its because I've been up 24hours straight and finally got some sleep.

[Andrew G]

Thats pretty good

[nn77]

Wow ,Can I have the code for the colours and background,at lest from one of ur forms,please

[Tegan]

Here are a few updated screenshots including some of our program in the VB IDE and how screwed up it looks.

We just got a few things working today that are a major step towards completion. Shapes, images, and text resizing are working great.

Check it out...

http://www.basic-ware.com/Screenshots/inVB1.jpg
http://www.basic-ware.com/Screenshots/inVB2.jpg
http://www.basic-ware.com/Screenshots/new7.jpg
http://www.basic-ware.com/Screenshots/new8.jpg

The directory of all of them so far
http://www.basic-ware.com/Screenshots/