program installed on user's machine as opposed to a program that runs remotely and is accessed via an internet browser.
46
votes
9answers
4k views
Undo History - Why limit it?
Why do most applications have fairly limited 'undo' history functionality?
I've been caught out on multiple occasions (granted its technically my fault) where I've needed to undo a number of changes ...
45
votes
18answers
2k views
How can I keep up-to-date with the latest thinking about designing complex, rich applications?
I am designing a very complex eco-system of apps.
I like to make sure I am up-to-date with the latest thinking, research and trends in app and UI/UX design. I find that there are many great articles, ...
33
votes
9answers
3k views
What are the drawbacks of designing a Windows application to look like a Mac application?
I'm working with a company whose product is a Microsoft Windows application.
As the UI/UX designer (and as a Mac user) I want to redesign the application so it is more visually appealing.
Are there ...
24
votes
6answers
981 views
What is the best way to get users to discover and learn keyboard shortcuts
In a mouse driven desktop application, with a ribbon style interface and which has no menubar, what is the best way for users to learn about the shortcuts and accelerators which can help a user work ...
19
votes
6answers
1k views
Search box UI - “all words”, “partial match”, “exact phrase”
I'm designing a desktop application (boring accounting stuff) and I have a "search product" feature.
I want to have a nice but simple 'smart' search box. Currently, the search box works by splitting ...
19
votes
5answers
12k views
Is there a Windows 8 desktop UI Guideline or HIG anywhere in the world?
And I don't mean Win 7 / Metro UI guidelines, I have them up the wazoo, but I've changed jobs and need to start looking at the new Windows 8 DESKTOP design. I know it takes a lot of cues from Metro on ...
16
votes
3answers
517 views
How to indicate a table is missing rows that have been filtered out?
Do you know of any aesthetically-pleasing and effective ways of indicating that a table's contents have been filtered, without the filter information getting in the way?
Some background on my ...
12
votes
3answers
251 views
What are the reasons why the mobile apps market is more developed and active than the desktop one?
What are the reasons why the mobile apps market is more developed and active than the desktop one?
11
votes
7answers
440 views
Saving & restoring undo stack — good or bad?
In a sovereign desktop app with multi-level undo/redo (ie Photoshop, Word, etc), would being able to save and restore the undo history of a file with the file itself be a good thing or a bad thing? My ...
11
votes
5answers
463 views
What's the best way to get reliable user feedback on a desktop application?
Lately my company has been trying to figure out the best way to get reliable feedback from a our users. It seems that we hear things from our power users and mostly from those who have trouble, but ...
10
votes
5answers
265 views
Should a special slider value be implemented with a checkbox or not?
Coming up with a title for this question was difficult, but hopefully my detailed explanation will explain exactly what I'm trying to figure out.
I am creating a dialog box for a GIMP plugin that ...
10
votes
2answers
246 views
Choosing appropriate words for error levels
I develop an open-source, system monitoring tool, ServiceMon, and I'd really appreciate some help choosing the right words to use for a feature.
The state of the system that is being monitored is ...
10
votes
2answers
415 views
Icon-only navigation bar for a desktop application?
I am working on a groupware application running as a desktop application (not in the browser). I wanted to keep the interface really simple and minimalistic so my users will not get distracted by a ...
10
votes
4answers
846 views
Should Dialogs be avoided in modern applications?
I have used a few dialogs on the last system I designed. The application was a business application with many database tables and I used many datagrids to show data. It was common that I placed a ...
10
votes
2answers
184 views
Is Desktop Window Title Necessary?
I'm currently working on a desktop app and wonder if the program name is really necessary in the title bar?
I know that latest versions of App Store and iTunes doesn't have it at all. But if we ...
10
votes
3answers
195 views
Can placing dark and light elements or blocks next to each other in a UI lead to problems in visual perception?
A designer on my project has proposed something that uses both light and dark backgrounds within the same context (basic mockups below).
A short background for the app:
It is a platform on which ...
9
votes
13answers
635 views
When would you prefer a custom/skinned user interface in a desktop application?
I'm working on an application whose UI is skin-based, but it looks a little bit old (its graphics were designed more than 5 yeas ago). It's not clear to me whether we should consider a redesign or get ...
9
votes
6answers
396 views
What to put in the About box?
I wonder what useful stuff one can put in an About box in a Mac OS X program.
Most basic the About box displays
Program icon
Program name
Version number
Copyright
More sophisticated ones ...
8
votes
5answers
3k views
Desktop software design patterns
There are a lot of resources on the web about web applications design patterns, but only a few about desktop applications.
And this is quite strange as most of the business targeted software is ...
8
votes
3answers
182 views
Why do menu labels behave differently in desktop applications and websites?
In a desktop application when you click a menu, you see all the options which reside within it, in a drop-down/pop-up list.
In many websites with a navigation menu which has sub-categories, I have ...
8
votes
6answers
690 views
iPhone like UI for Desktop apps
Is there any reason why an iPhone like UI paradigms shouldn't be adopted while designing a desktop application? Let's say you're developing a windows application, can you not use something similar to ...
8
votes
1answer
343 views
Where should the “preferences” item go in a desktop application?
I find that the "preferences" menu item is always in a different place, and often under an arbitrary name which always makes it a pain to locate unless you're already familiar with the software.
I ...
8
votes
10answers
610 views
How can I deal with too much blank space in a desktop application?
Usually people are concerned with too much data/interface, and not enough screen real estate, but I'm in the opposite situation.
The desktop application I'm working on has several tabs for entering ...
8
votes
5answers
459 views
What factors should I consider when [re]designing a home page / home screen?
I've been considering redesigning the home screen for the next release in a desktop application I'm responsible for. This could probably be thought of as a brand-new design, since I have virtually no ...
8
votes
2answers
179 views
Has user testing ever revealed that you have to change your app's UI colour?
Dark-themed UI colours have been popular for a while on certain desktop applications (Adobe Lightroom as an example), and seem to be popping up on mobile applications as well. I'm referring to the ...
8
votes
4answers
233 views
Is there ever a circumstance where the user should be notified of a user interface no-op?
The headline may be a bit confusing, so here's a web example (although this question is equally applicable to desktop applications):
I open up the same eBay listing in 2 separate tabs of my web ...
8
votes
1answer
308 views
Prominent Notification Areas in a Desktop Application
I am working on ux for a desktop application for users. I am looking to find out more information, answers, best practices when it comes to handling notifications of actions and other alerts within a ...
7
votes
3answers
721 views
What is the ideal height of a button in regular desktop applications?
On most GUI creator (I just checked Qt Creator and Flex Builder), it seems the default button height is about 22 pixels. This is what I use for most desktop applications I create except those I make ...
7
votes
1answer
160 views
Should filtering of data have an effect on the filter criteria as well?
My quesion is about filtering of data in a Windows desktop application.
I have a large amount of data coming from a database (> 900.000 records). The records are shown in a classic listcontrol (rows ...
7
votes
1answer
99 views
Best practice to ask for donation on a windows application?
How to ask for donation on a free windows application, without risking being pushy ?
This old question is only talking about websites: Best UX to ask for donations
I want to remind people to donate, ...
6
votes
6answers
351 views
Why does Skype's “x” button minimize the application instead of closing?
I was browsing through the web and I came across this sentiment:
Dear Skype, this (red X) button means close, not minimize
I also found the same question on the Skype website. Why would a ...
6
votes
5answers
905 views
Replacement for long drop-down list
I'm currently working on a part of our application in which the user edits a document. Part of the application allows the user to input certain "parts." We've implemented this as a couple of drop ...
6
votes
7answers
406 views
Why do most websites have a custom skin where as most desktop applications don't?
You rarely ever see websites with a UI that has the same skin as the operating system. But, desktop application rarely ever change skins. Why do custom-skins work so well for webpages but not for ...
6
votes
3answers
155 views
How to handle long processing task in UI?
We have a Desktop based WinForms application. Application performs some very complex logic in database and is bound to take long time. By long time i mean it will take anything from 1 min to 20 min ...
6
votes
1answer
278 views
Where can I find an official or recommended Windows desktop application user interface usability and style guide?
I've heard there is a OSX User Interface Usability and Style Guide since the 90's. I never heard of an equivalent book for Windows. Is there any?
6
votes
4answers
512 views
What are good examples of custom/skinned user interfaces? [closed]
In relation to the question of when should you skin your application (desktop apps, not web pages, which are almost always customised), it seems a real fact, that sometimes you just have to do it, ...
6
votes
3answers
134 views
Getting “empty” views right
In many applications, the first view a user will see is an empty view. A view with no data in it.
Let's say for example that we have a desktop project management application, then the first view ...
5
votes
6answers
341 views
Rough and fine adjustments with horizontal slider
I'm used to scrolling being thrice as effective as arrowkeys in Firefox.
I want to give the ability to quickly and roughly adjust values by hovering over the slider and using the scrollwheel. Finest ...
5
votes
2answers
354 views
What affords scrolling?
Besides the obvious:
Scrollbar
Touch interfaces (especially mobile ones)
A sign saying "You can scroll here you know!"
This for a desktop application.
5
votes
4answers
386 views
The logic behind having an OK button and Apply button
Moving back to desktop land after being drunk with mobile interfaces, desktop dialogs almost always have these three buttons:
OK
Apply
Cancel
A close button.
This pattern seems to occur on both ...
5
votes
3answers
511 views
Options, preferences, settings, configurations: What to call them in my application?
I've seen a lot of different applications use a lot of different terminology for the part of the application that lets you change the settings. But are there any advantages/conventions as to using one ...
5
votes
3answers
304 views
Managing multiple windows in one application
I am developing a desktop application to create, arrange and read blocs of sounds, via a grid interface like this :
Each bloc of sound is of different nature and has its own panel to control its ...
5
votes
2answers
110 views
Correct ordering position for 'Yes', 'No' and 'Not now'?
What is the correct position for the 3 buttons:
Yes - No - Not now
(or Yes - No - Later)
is it Yes - No - Not now
or is it Yes - Not now - No
This will be on a windows 7 windows application, on ...
5
votes
4answers
525 views
Software startup screens [closed]
I know there is advice (and very good advice at that) to generally not have startup/welcome screens in software.
Our software I think has a legitimate need for one, our free download is served from ...
5
votes
3answers
293 views
Menu organization : conventional or domain-specific?
I'm building a desktop application that is a tool to mount some very domain-specific graphic structures that in the tool's context are called "sequences" (it's not important here I guess).
To help ...
5
votes
5answers
230 views
Scaling an Address Form on Resize
My application has a form for filling in the names and addresses of a donor. Each donor gets a closable tab and each tab has an address form.
The problem is that the application runs in a regular ...
5
votes
3answers
100 views
Reasonable webpage file size
What sort of file size is currently reasonable for a webpage? Considering a responsive design being served to both a desktop with a high-bandwidth connection and a slow connection mobile device.
5
votes
3answers
181 views
Accessibility for non-web desktop applications
For web-applications I'm used to using WCAG 2.0 as a specification to provide to developers and 3rd parties who are developing websites to use as a guide.
I now have a 3rd party supplying a Windows ...
5
votes
4answers
424 views
How to handle Desktop Application frame sizing/scaling
I am working on a new project which is focused on a desktop application for users. I am looking to find out more information, answers, best practices when it comes to handling sizing and scaling with ...
5
votes
2answers
480 views
Best layout for lots of user input elements?
I have an application that presents a question/answer form to the user. It was mandated that the form look as close to the paper form as possible. The paper form was built in a spreadsheet as two ...
