Hot answers tagged desktop-application
70
You're introducing two big problems right off the bat; breaking conventions and clashing styles. Don't forget that Apple and Microsoft have released different interface guidelines for their respective platforms :
Windows UX Guidelines and the OS X UX Guidelines.
Using conventions is important and helps users work in your app without thinking (Don't Make Me ...
66
Trust me when I say this - undo/redo is one of the biggest implementation, testing and maintenance headaches in any significantly sized application.
Granted, it is a wonderful thing to be able to undo/redo something as it relaxes the user and lets them test and explore their environment without worry. However, the usefulness of an undo history starts to ...
35
The users experience in your application should fit with the experience they have come to understand and work within in their chosen (or forced upon) OS. They have built laws and rules of interaction on that experience, for good or bad.
A major drawback with designing an app to look more like OS X UI than Windows 7 or Vista UI is that the overall look and ...
24
Google has solved this long ago - no use reinventing the wheel. ;)
I'd suggest you remove the need to choose, and do three searches at the same time: "exact phrase", "match all words", AND "match any". Then unite (SQL "union") those results in that order, and present them to the user.
Drawbacks:
more load on your database.
Positives:
more natural ...
16
You could try to approach this with an, "tell them about better ways to do what they are doing when they do it" approach. For example, if I am selecting text and clicking bold, that is fine, but if I do that over and over maybe have a modeless (non disruptive, out of the way) notification that could say something like, "Did you know you can press ctrl-b to ...
16
The guidelines for Windows 8 desktop applications are the same as for Windows 7.
That means that you'll find them here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa511440.aspx
Windows 8 has two separate UIs: Windows Store apps (formerly known as "Metro-style apps") and Desktop.
Windows Store apps is the new, future oriented touch UI. ...
13
For Mac OS X, it's Application Name | Preferences…
For MS Windows, it's Tools | Options or Edit | Preferences (see comments)
For GNOME, it's Edit | Preferences
13
Besides the obvious...
An indication that what is on screen is not the complete content. For example:
Text stops mid sentence
A border box shows no bottom but has the left and right edges stopping at the bottom. Even more emphasized if they have drop shadows.
Text or lists that cut off the bottom half of a line.
Pictures cut in half
Long text which has a ...
11
I agree with @Nir that what you currently have is functional. It is difficult to miss the fact that not all records may be visible. What I don't like is the uncertainty, i.e. how you state that "proteins may be hidden". Are they hidden or not?
This screen snapshot describes a couple of different ways of doing it:
The record count is shown on top, ...
11
On the one side, Mobile UIs provide features that are well-suited for touch based interaction on small screens (which is not the case in the desktop). On the other side, mobile UIs emphasize: the need to focus on the task in hand, the need for being responsive and the role of content among other aspects that can be applied to desktop apps.
These principles ...
11
If I were you, I would add tooltips like on Microsoft Excel 2010 and add help page with a list of shortcuts (something like this). I think that should be enough.
Screenshot of russian Microsoft Excel, displaying tooltip when hovering over bold icon.
11
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups
How about this?
Just replace the checkboxes with radio buttons.
Color channel - selecting Lossless disables the slider, and selecting Lossy enables it.
Alpha channel - selecting Lossless sets the slider to 100% and selecting Lossy and setting it to 100% manually doesn't affect ...
11
It's not. There remain vastly more desktop users than mobile users;
1.25 billion. The current number of active Windows users worldwide.
500 million. The number of Windows 7 licenses sold since October 2009.
400 million. The number of x86 PCs that will be sold in the next 12 months.
247 million. The number of iOS devices (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad) ...
11
I believe this application (Skype) and many other communication type applications including instant-messengers, email clients and other VOIP apps, hi-jack the "X" button to minimize the more user-frustrating event of accidentally ending a users communication session. In many cases, users might simply want to get the application of the screen, the fastest and ...
10
The main issue is that you break learned patterns and conventions.
You are a mac user, so – naturally – you find your way around iTunes' interface, on whatever platform it may be running.
The users of the app, however, will most likely be windows users. They have learned the design principles and gui conventions windows offers, and will have an easy time ...
10
No, a desktop app should remember the way it was set last time it was used - size, position and mode (minimized, maximized, normal) - and open in exactly the same way.
Please note that minimizing and maximizing a window changes its size and possibly its position settings, so to achieve this a desktop app should remember the size and position values when it ...
9
My first thought is that most people will abandon the secondary naming scheme you assign each colour, and will probably call each state by its colour.
The first real-world example of this behaviour that comes to mind is the American Department of Homeland Security's (discontinued) colour-coded threat level warning system.
You will note that, even in the ...
9
They are distinct:
OK: Applies the changes and closes the dialog (or goes back to the previous location / one level up)
Apply: Applies the changes so the user can see / work with the results, but keeps the dialog open, ready for further modifications
Cancel: closes the dialog without applying any changes.
The "Close button" in the window title usually acts ...
8
There isn't a single skinned application I didn't end up hating. Seriously, the skins I've seen are there purely to make the application look "richer" than a normal Windows application and ends up doing nothing more than suck up memory and CPU in order to look like a pig with lipstick on and eventually fail with paint issues.
I loathe skinned applications ...
8
You already named the definitive sources for desktop applications for the two major operating systems. Those guidelines from Apple and Microsoft are what you should be following.
8
You are giving them too much choices.
Give them a clear path and they won't be confused anymore.
For example grey out1, disable or hide2 all the "textboxes" except the first one.
When they start typing in it show/enable the second one and so on. They will naturally click (they won't tab obviously) on the only field available to them. Don't make them think.
...
8
I don't design desktop applications so I don't have much experience with options there, but I can give you some examples that might inspire.
Gmail
I've also always liked how Gmail does keyboard shortcuts. They're very simple, not requiring you to learn and use multiple keys at the same time and you can pop open a pane displaying all of them just by typing ...
8
To facilitate the discovery of shortcuts you can provide information of some shortcuts when the CTRL key is pressed.
In this way, when the user uses a basic shortcut (e.g., CTRL+C to copy) small tooltips can appear over the ribbon to indicate that more shortcuts are available.
Another option to announce the availability of shortcuts is to indicate them in ...
8
First of all, I don't think using the scroll wheel for a slider is very practical:
Depending on the scroll wheel speed, it can be uncontrollable (i.e. sliding too fast)
Scrolling is usually vertical, sliders are horizontal (exception: multi touch input)
It's not common, people won't expect it (I'm not aware of any application doing this)
If you scroll, ...
8
Well, the Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines specifies everything for the Windows applications. Including Recommended sizing and spacing. As you can se, 73x21 is the recommended button size. 75x23 if you include the invisible 1px border.
Fitts' law, however, is the usability research you are looking for if you want to calculate the time it will ...
8
Removing formatting runs the risk of making numbers ambiguous. Currency signs help indicate the size of a figure of money, and have obvious importance for anyone doing business internationally. They also help users pick out money data in long rows of numbers, as it's much easier to look for numbers that begin with symbols than try and follow column headings ...
8
In your specific situation, as long as the context of the application is known, the icons look as though they currently could be enough to decipher which icon is for what -- in its current state with minimal actions. In short -- I think you could get away with it, but forcing the user to have no labels might not be the best route to go down without some ...
8
The following are a list of sites I visit weekly to see what's up and new. It is a mix of design, graphics, UX, resources. Their strength comes from following links in their articles, opening to door to more resources.
http://www.webappers.com
http://designmodo.com
http://designrfix.com
http://djdesignerlab.com
http://www.smashingapps.com
...
8
My experience has been that people have strong feelings about dark themes, in that they either love or hate them.
Light coloured themes on the other hand people are a lot less passionate about. They neither love nor hate them. This makes light themes the "safe" choice.
With modern technology it is fairly simple to offer both a light and a dark theme, ...
8
Since you mentioned Windows, I would direct you to the Windows UX guidelines on confirmations: Confirmations
They recommend the Yes - No - Not Now form (Yes/No/Cancel). I would however recommend more semantic button labels than 'Yes' and 'No', but I know this is just a question about positioning.
Edit (in response to Isaiah's answer): Yes, these are ...
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