Topic: My thoughts on UI/GUI design

Anonymous A started this topic 9 months (2009-07-03 05:15:?? UTC) ago (#28,800):

1. Never use gradients or any background that consists of more than a single color. You think it looks good; I think it makes me want to vomit.

2. Make icons as small as possible while still being functional. 10x10 is a good default setting, but allow users to resize them.

3. Never use a graphical element where a textual element is aptly sufficient.

4. Use only the following colors: black, shades of grey, white, green. White text on a black background is preferable.

5. No mouse gestures. They're just plain annoying and ambiguous.

6. User interfaces based on "invisible" windows that can be switched with keyboard shortcuts or tabs are preferable.

7. Clicking or hovering over things should not make them change color, blink, flash, change size, or do anything. I'm not stupid nor blind. I know my mouse is hovering over it or clicking it; I don't need your dumbass program to tell me.

8. Nothing should ever blink or flash. If you want to get my attention do it in a sensible way.

9. Things should not spin or move around.

10. UI/GUI should be as minimal as possible and take up as little screen space as possible.

11. Do not show me a "tip of the day". Rather, document your software properly and we won't need them!

12. Do not make GUI elements with rounded edges. Basic rectangles are just fine.

13. Do not show menu items separately when they could just as easily be collapsed into one expandable menu.

14. Auto-hide all taskbars, menu items, toolbars, and any other UI/GUI elements when I'm not using them. And when I say "hide" I mean hide instantly; don't make them fade away, scroll away, explode, go up in smoke, or do anything other than instantly disappear.

15. I hate you. Yes, you! I can see you. You're using Firefox or Opera. You have at least two or three toolbars. Your theme is probably some red and black catastrophe with rounded, giant, and tumor-like buttons or some light blue shitty Web 2.0-esque theme named "Aqua" or "Aquarius". You disgust me. You think that actually looks good? It doesn't. You're being deceived. You're being tricked into mindless decadence. Stop it. It's not too late.

Examples of programs with a good interface: Media Player Classic, Irssi

Example of a website with a good interface: Anontalk

Any thoughts?

Anonymous B joined in and replied with this 9 months (2009-07-03 05:26:?? UTC) ago, 11 minutes later (#172,137):

I enjoyed reading these and thoroughly agree.

Anonymous C joined in and replied with this 9 months (2009-07-03 05:32:?? UTC) ago, 6 minutes later, 17 minutes past creation (#172,139):

While largely valid, a couple of your points are stupid.

2. With large resolutions, this is simply too small.

4. Why green as the only color? I can see this because of the overuse of blue, but it's moronic to arbitrarily can all other colors.

11. Often, "Tips of the Day" can bring to light convenient, befoe-unknown features that save time. You aren't going to look in documentation for a feature if you don't know that it exists.

12. Rounded edges, when they take up no additional screen space, are acceptable, although unneccessary. However, if you don't like ANY unnecessary things, you hate serif fonts and all but the most minimal sans fonts, and would, as a logical extension of this, want only one font.

13. If everything can be collapsed into one menu, finding things becomes extremely frustrating. At the least, these things must be organized into some sorts of logical categories.

14. When GUI elements slide away, it can be a convenient, nonverbal way to show how you can get them to reappear. Fading/etc. are trite and unnecessary, however.

Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 9 months (2009-07-03 06:07:?? UTC) ago, 35 minutes later, 52 minutes past creation (#172,147):

@previous

> 2. With large resolutions, this is simply too small.

Most people are using 1024x768 still and 10x10 looks just fine to them. As I said, users should be able to resize the icons. If things are really too small then they can modify their DPI.

> 4. Why green as the only color? I can see this because of the overuse of blue, but it's moronic to arbitrarily can all other colors.

If you've ever used an early terminal you will be very familiar with green on black. A nice dark green (not an eye shattering lime green or anything) can be a very subtle but effective color without being distracting like most others. Most program designers will need at least one "special color" that sticks out. If they do, I'd prefer that they use green.

> 11. Often, "Tips of the Day" can bring to light convenient, before-unknown features that save time. You aren't going to look in documentation for a feature if you don't know that it exists.

Apparently for some people a text file that screams "README" at them isn't enough of an indication that they might want to look at something. People who actually read documentation thoroughly before even loading up a program should not have to suffer because of the short attention spans of your modern computer user.

> 12. Rounded edges, when they take up no additional screen space, are acceptable, although unneccessary. However, if you don't like ANY unnecessary things, you hate serif fonts and all but the most minimal sans fonts, and would, as a logical extension of this, want only one font.

Actually as a former typesetter I know that serifs are far from useless. The reason serif fonts are used is because they aid visibility and readability. The serifs "guide" you along the text, forming a straight line for the eye to follow. Sans-serif fonts should be used only for headings and short pieces of text with a significantly large font. For longer paragraphs, serif fonts are always the best, preferably monospaced.

> 13. If everything can be collapsed into one menu, finding things becomes extremely frustrating. At the least, these things must be organized into some sorts of logical categories.

I'm not saying everything should be collapsed into one menu. I'm merely saying that it's annoying when every little insignificant feature has some large icon on an already bloated toolbar. Only items that are going to be used near constantly (for example, the back button in a web browser) should have their own icon or non-nested selection.

> 14. When GUI elements slide away, it can be a convenient, nonverbal way to show how you can get them to reappear. Fading/etc. are trite and unnecessary, however.

Your average computer user is familiar enough with GUI concepts to know that things that disappear will generally reappear in the same place if the mouse returns to that area. If they're not, they can read the documentation. Having the element slide away is just a waste of my time.

Anonymous D joined in and replied with this 9 months (2009-07-03 07:29:?? UTC) ago, 1 hour later, 2 hours past creation (#172,201):

I agree, especially about the curved windows, but I think colors should be able to be different than just those you mentioned: we can't have every site look the same. I agree with you on the catastrophe so many people have on their browsers, it isn't elegant at all. I have a nice, logical theme on my main notebook with a black/navy color scheme that is simple.

For the Linux users here: Can we all agree KDE looks like shit?

Anonymous E joined in and replied with this 9 months (2009-07-03 08:20:?? UTC) ago, 51 minutes later, 3 hours past creation (#172,238):

@previous

Perhaps the range of colors could be extended to 16 basic colors, but no more than that.

Anonymous F joined in and replied with this 9 months (2009-07-03 15:19:?? UTC) ago, 7 hours later, 10 hours past creation (#172,357):

So, who else thinks that Google Chrome has the best interface for a mainstream browser?

Anonymous G joined in and replied with this 9 months (2009-07-03 19:00:?? UTC) ago, 4 hours later, 14 hours past creation (#172,454):

I disagree with almost all of that. I don't like my toolbars to disappear because I like my screen layout to be constant (although I do have them as minimal as possible, in Firefox I have 3 bars; tabs, bookmarks and a combined menus/browsing buttons/address bar). I like different colours, pastels are particularly effective. Rounded edges make many things look a lot better, square edges often look outdated and ugly. Subtle gradients and two-tones work well.

Anonymous H joined in and replied with this 9 months (2009-07-03 22:03:?? UTC) ago, 3 hours later, 17 hours past creation (#172,525):

AnonTalk BBS

Topic: My thoughts on UI/GUI design