Hot answers tagged gui-design
75
If you're a programmer, you're already creative. Programming is one of the most creative of professions (else why would the word "elegant" be such a high term of praise?). So much for that.
So let's narrow this down. You want a route to channel your already-existing creativity into the VISUAL arts, rather than the unseen-by-all art of good coding.
Like ...
17
My answer is partially related to your question, but what I feel is that I needed motivation to count myself and you need some also.
Can you be creative?
Absolutely!
Use your imagination to change your beliefs; give time to your thoughts.
When I was newbie in this field the same things were in my mind but as time passed I came to know that only I can ...
12
This isn't really a "graphic design" answer, but you may also want to see if you can change the text. In your examples, I don't think the art of the "install" button is particularly more button-like than your Outlook button. However, the text on it is a well-known verb so it is associated with performing an action. In the same vein, "Launch Outlook" may ...
11
Yes, this question is incredibly broad. Maybe it's OK as a wiki article.
For starters, define 'we'. There are many, many people and roles involved with designing web sites and they all tend to have different common mistakes.
To give this question at least one answer, I'll toss out issues I've seen that seem to pop-up over and over again:
using wireframes ...
10
No, those are all way too close. You're suffering from Red Shorts Syndrome.
What does that mean? Well, let's say you watch a race, and the guy who won the race wore red shorts. If you want to win a race, do you go out and buy red shorts and assume that wearing them will make you win? No, you look at what the winner did to train himself so that he could win. ...
10
I think your questions is not about how to be creative, but rather about how to be able to create visually appealing content.
I know many graphic designers who are either good or talented, but are not creative (in the sense of being innovative and thinking out-of-the-box) at all.
Now, from my experience, people who are able to produce visually appealing ...
10
Pixel fonts aren't terribly different from tiny print fonts when you get right down to it*. The one big exception is that you know what the medium will do with pixel fonts -- a very big advantage.
There really isn't an ideal pixel grid, per se. Obviously a larger grid gives you more room to work. The smallest types I've seen work successfully are 7px ...
7
To me, it sounds you lack self-confidence.
You already master one difficult part: programming, and as Alan already said, programming is a creative job.
My tip: keep it simple, learn basic rules about layout and find your own style. This book: The design of sites helped me a lot for the structure of my designs and this book: The idea book helped me for ...
6
The answer to this question only exists in the courtroom, and even then, it's a blurry grey line.
That's the legal issue, at least.
The moral/ethical part is highly subjective heavily dependent on way to many variables to have any meaningful generic answer.
Finally, sometimes it makes complete sense to outright steal. Especially in UI design where ...
6
Your question scope is a little broad, but let me try to explain how I got into interface design. I just started by working on personal web projects for years, and visiting sites that had tutorials on how to use Photoshop to create certain results, then I started doing a few projects for other people and employers and generally just kept on experimenting and ...
6
If you can't think of any "etc..." then its possible you don't need any "etc..." in there.
We seem to have an in built reaction to fill our graphics so they don't look empty. It takes guts to push out a design that looks simple (even if its not).
Something i learnt at design school was to embrace negative-space/white-space/void and to resist the urge to ...
6
You should probably consider establishing upper and lower limits and making the area of concern flash (possibly a red or yellow background with a black line flashing back to the normal waveform) if values go above or below those limits. For example:
ETCO2 values above or below baseline (35-45mmHg)
HR below 60 (considered bradycardic) or above 120 ...
5
As more of a programmer than designer my self I find that it helps my creative process when I "design in the browser" instead of Photoshop.
I usually start with HTML and CSS to get my basic layout down and use Photoshop if I need to create buttons or other graphical elements. This also speeds up the process and makes development much faster.
When I use ...
5
The key here is affordance - visual clues for the user to be able to determine the behaviour and intended use of something from a distance - before interacting with it - like a flat plate on a door says push and a handle says pull.
See http://bit.ly/irzAfP for my own examples of affordance.
The main cues are beveled edges and gradient fills for a 3D feel ...
5
The visual flow of an interface does matter, and here's why:
Every interface screen should have a primary action or actions that are to be performed. The visual flow should naturally draw the eye to the primary action.
The less distance the eye has to travel, the easier an interface is to comprehend and use. Studies (pdf) on form design bear this out as ...
4
I use two Wireframing tools
Balsamiq mockups - Simple wireframing tool, fast to use, cheap, awesome. http://balsamiq.com/products/mockups
AxureRP - Complex, very complete, almost a working web app, expensive, awesome. http://www.axure.com
Have fun :)
4
Using four shadows instead of two may give a better approximation of an outline effect, if that's what you want:
text-shadow: 0 -1px #000, 1px 0 #000, 0 1px #000, -1px 0 #000;
A bit surprisingly, it turns out that the W3C actually recommend this hack in their CSS examples.
4
These types if Ui designs are commonly created using Adobe Illustrator and then brought into Adobe After Effects for creating the video portion of the elements making them appear "in use". I don't know that they have a particular term or designation in regards to a theme.
They are in fact static short film clips and never truly functional UIs. Directors and ...
3
Lauren's right. In this specific case, the answer is pretty clear.
Your more general question ("How closely ...") is one that's constantly being addressed in many courts in multiple countries and on at least three continents. Once upon a time, the issue was purely one of copyright, and you would certainly be in violation in this case without an explicit, ...
3
Pen and paper. Can't beat it. Cheap, easy, effective. Incredibly fast. Just like they teach you in design school, you should be doing dozens, potentially hundreds of sketches to fully hash out an idea. It's an easy way to explore countless variations of an idea, even ones that you might have second guessed when used software. No need for producing "sketchy ...
3
you should use two kind of image one is on active and one is normal state normal state will look bit embossed
attaching a SS and see how they clarifying different stats of a button,
and whenever user get on your button change cursor to hand it will feel like link,if possible you can write in small click here to instal..or you can point this button with ...
3
Apple's HIG make clear that they would prefer you simply show the default interface devoid of any content. But that really doesn't work well with applications with completely custom interfaces like games. Just about every application I have ever seen ignores this rule.
Things to keep in mind is that splashscreens are that they...
Cannot be modified
...
3
If you are looking for something that helps you with the guidelines, this is a useful tool based on a Google Project:
http://android-ui-utils.googlecode.com/hg/asset-studio/dist/index.html
It does everything in automatic so I would not recommend it ;)
3
You can find a template pack here:
http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/icon_design.html
as well as some pretty thorough guidelines for developing icons for the Droid. I would assume that anyone who could do web / graphic work could make icons for the Droid (it looks like they range from 19 x 19 px to 72 x 72 px). I don't know if ...
3
I would highly recommend using the open/closed hand cursor when manipulating on-screen objects. The open hand on hover, and the closed hand on mouse down and when dragging.
This standard is used in many popular applications, not the least of which is every Google app where dragging one or more objects is required (e.g., G-mail message list, a Google Map). ...
3
If he uses the native resolution for the smartphone (960x640 for iPhone retina) and
if he uses layers to separate the individual items, it should work.
So he should use PS or Pixelmator or any other application which can handle layers and he must send it to you in a usable file format like .psd or .tiff
3
There are a lot of considerations when working with the mockup so it's really best if you ask the designer his/her intentions. If you have reasonably decent Photoshop/GIMP/MSPAINT skills you can hack up a flat image and make elements for your app. BUT... there's always a but... you need more knowledge than just the static mockup. Should certain elements ...
3
You could do both.
Since sliding is really just switching pages, each page is unique, so should warrant its own design.
However, they ARE related to each other in that they all belong to the same slide sequence.
So, I would create a thumbnail (less detailed perhaps) view to show the slide relationship between the pages.
There are also iPad prototyping ...
3
There is no universal way to describe a user interface. It's typical for a designer to hand over image assets as one or a combination of these things:
Individual files. Probably 32bit PNGs if you're creating an iOS, Android or Mac app.
Sprite sheets. More common for games than apps. Sprite sheets are also known as texture atlases.
Photoshop documents ...
3
I cannot speak outside of my own limited experience. I worked at a company that designed some of the GUIs for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) products. Actually, that's not quite true... we designed mock-ups used by our software. The final product was going to be shipped to the FAA, and their in-house designers were going to customize it from ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
