Questions tagged [desktop-application]
program installed on user's machine as opposed to a program that runs remotely and is accessed via an internet browser.
352
questions
1
vote
1answer
36 views
Desktop application that uses both a Ribbon and a Menu?
I know the Ribbon was intended to replace the conventional menu, but are there any examples of desktop applications which attempted to use both? If so, how was the end result? Was it a nightmare? Did ...
1
vote
0answers
48 views
Looking for some input on UI design of my first desktop app
So I'm building an app to help intensive PC users build strong habits. The first feature I'm building is a little 'pop-up reminders' feature, to remind people to maintain good posture, drink water, ...
2
votes
2answers
50 views
In a Desktop application, should the recent file list placed directly in the file menu
A desktop tool mostly offers recent files. I am used to press Alt+F and then 1 to open the first recent files. It seems that I learned it from Notepad++. I thought it was a "platform convention&...
0
votes
1answer
55 views
What is the best ease curve and speed for color transitions?
I am creating a desktop app, and I'm currently implementing animations.
I understand from Material Design Guidelines that I should set the speed for transitions for desktop apps at about 100-250 ms to ...
2
votes
2answers
65 views
Context menu being chopped off from main screen - alternative design strategies?
I am not sure if many people have experienced this before, but on desktop applications where the context menu (i.e. pop-up menu triggered by a right-click mouse selection) is used for items that is in ...
0
votes
1answer
70 views
When is it right to use native menus for desktop apps?
I am building a video chat desktop app, and it has a window to emulate a custom menu. I have seen many desktop apps that use native menus, and it is pretty common. Other desktop apps use custom menus, ...
0
votes
2answers
37 views
Control for adjusting ratio between quantities
I am looking for a ui control type which allows adjusting the ratios between at least 3 different scalar quantities.
For example, adjusting the composition of a chemical solution, such that a user can ...
2
votes
1answer
151 views
Is it ok for a desktop app to steal the focus when the app's window is hovered?
We are working on an app that is meant to be on one side of the screen, it is a desktop app for video calls. Right now if you hover the app's window it steals the focus so the user can start typing to ...
3
votes
2answers
183 views
What's the name of this UI component?
I am looking for the general name of the component that a lot of IDEs use. Examples:
Goto Anything in Sublime
Quick Open in Visual Studio Code
Omnibar in Blueprintjs
It is usually opened with CTRL+P ...
3
votes
4answers
252 views
What Micro Interaction to use When Hovering Over a Button?
š
We are trying to learn/understand UX from first principals and build the most intuitive UI.
We are creating buttons in an App and want to know what the ideal micro interaction is when hovering ...
0
votes
0answers
73 views
Other alternative to tabs (I need to design more then 10+ categories in the same screen)
I'm working on a system with a lot of content on the same screen.
There is a 2/3 table on the left and 1/3 right curtain details.
When the user clicks on item in the table, the right curtain shows and ...
0
votes
1answer
88 views
Icon on a Call to Action Button - Best results
I'm wondering if there are some icons better than others for the main action button on a homepage's hero banner.
In some case it would depend on the context and what the button is requiring the user ...
3
votes
2answers
115 views
Implementing an insert-update-delete grid in a web application
I'm in the process of rewriting an old desktop application that's used for warehouse management and retail. The warehouse window is meant for importing, returning and modifying imported items. So it's ...
0
votes
2answers
96 views
tab order of help button in dialogs
When I place the help button in dialogs like here:
What tab order should I use? It's obvious that the content panel uses tabindex values that correspond to the reading order which is supported by the ...
1
vote
2answers
101 views
Filtering options for a combobox
I currently have a log-on dialogue box which I present to users when they wish to log onto a target system. As I have quite a number of possible target systems, I offer them a combobox in which they ...
1
vote
5answers
499 views
Placement of Help button: left or right to OK/Cancel
I'm adding help to a Windows desktop application that is being in use since the Windows XP era. All the modal dialogs display the typical OK/Cancel button set placed at the bottom right as shown in ...
3
votes
3answers
157 views
Gray-out conundrum
As we're approaching the release date for v2.5.0 of Rubberduck (an open-source VBIDE add-in), we're facing a bit of a dilemma regarding a specific type of tree nodes in one of our toolwindows:
The ...
2
votes
3answers
645 views
What is the best way to notify a user that updates are available in a desktop application?
I have a Windows desktop application that is used as the front-end for a webservice. This application has a database that could get updated from time to time, but it would also work with an old ...
6
votes
1answer
320 views
About Commanding in UWP apps. What commanding approach is best? office like?, UWP? or classic win32?
I'm writing an app with platform UWP-Windows 10-1903(Universal Windows), for making electric circuits, designs and simulations. User makes a design on screen with resistors, generators, etc, and run ...
97
votes
11answers
26k views
Are Scroll Bars Dead in 2020?
I recently heard a designer say something to the effect that modern web designs don't use visual scrollbars - or at least they're only visible when scrolling. I'm a front-end developer and hadn't ...
2
votes
5answers
897 views
Should a Save button be disabled if there have been no changes made?
I have a desktop application, and in this application, there is a non-modal dialog where a user can make changes to something. The dialog has a Close button and a Save button. The Save button does not ...
1
vote
2answers
413 views
when to use “wait” and when “busy” mouse cursor
I am developing a desktop application with Qt framework. When there is a task running which causes the UI to be blocked for a while, I would like to use a mouse cursor indicating that the user should ...
26
votes
12answers
6k views
Users forgetting to regenerate PDF before sending it
My company is developing an ERP software for small businesses and we're encountering a recurrent problem.
In the "Invoices" part of the app, there's a "View/Print" button that exports the invoice to ...
0
votes
2answers
400 views
“Undo Changes” & “Refresh”
In a desktop application, where users are pulling and sometimes updating values on a "datagridview" (DGV) that is data-bound to a database, how should a designer distinguish between "undo changes" and ...
1
vote
1answer
170 views
Combined Tables View
I have 4 different types of external logging data that can be opened in my desktop application. They are displayed as tables. Each of these have a few columns in common (e.g. timestamp), but most of ...
0
votes
3answers
148 views
Where should I place my inline data table buttons?
I'm building a desktop application with the intent for my users to perform action items on remote devices (can't say due to company IP). Users will also check the status of these devices, pre and post ...
0
votes
0answers
91 views
Handoff Design materials to developers in WPF
I am UX expert working mainly on designing web applications.
Now the company is thinking moving to develop a window application.
I am looking for materials around design standards for windows ...
2
votes
2answers
125 views
Groups vs notebooks
I'm working on a note taking app. One of the feature is that you can group the notes in a folder like manner in which one can create. subgroups inside groups and more subgroups and put notes/notebooks ...
1
vote
1answer
79 views
What design pattern should I use to migrate windows lists with buttons to web?
I have a Windows application that I need to migrate to web. This application has many forms that follow the same pattern: (1) a grid on the left with columns and rows than can be selected, and (2) ...
1
vote
1answer
588 views
Make desktop application support the minimum resolution
Windows UX Checklist states that a desktop application should:
Support the minimum Windows effective resolution of 800x600 pixels.
For critical user interfaces (UIs) that must work in safe mode,
...
4
votes
5answers
2k views
Hover vs click on mega menu
Now implementing a new mega-menu. The current mega-menu's submenu options are shown on user cursor hover. Would a more explicit action like mouse click be more appropriate for this (like the example ...
2
votes
1answer
54 views
Should non-existant files in a recently used files list be deleted without user prompt?
Say, you have this common thing of "recently used files" or "frequently used files" in your application.
It may easily happen the user moves or deletes a file they had opened recently/frequently. So ...
0
votes
3answers
529 views
Should phone numbers be clickable within our software on (desktop)?
We are working on cleaning up our system and identifying phone numbers so they will be detected and show up as links for mobile users.
The question I have is should we make them show up as links for ...
2
votes
2answers
169 views
Should we mask API keys?
As an authentication token, an API key is pretty much functionally identical to a password.
Does it follow then that we should mask the API key, when it is entered in a settings dialog?
The reason ...
0
votes
2answers
143 views
Full width of the textbox on the screen or not [duplicate]
Apologies if this comes as a naive question.
From design point of view basically a textbox control (or any control) in a grid container, does it makes sense to have a textbox in fullwidth of the ...
0
votes
2answers
140 views
How to choose between a Popover, Inspector, or Toolbar to edit properties?
macOS apps have the following patterns (and possibly others) for editing properties of selected items:
Popovers (See here)
Inspector Panels (Right Sidebar)
Toolbars
In the following example, the ...
0
votes
1answer
73 views
Is it a problem if my form takes up twice as much space in web form than it does in the desktop application?
I am trying to migrate some forms from a desktop implementation to a web implementation, which should still primarily be used by desktop users.
Currently, we have a generic out-of-the-box theme (the ...
1
vote
2answers
67 views
Keeping alert messages the same on desktop & native app
For a given alert/error message, a version that specified why it was happening and how it can be resolved tested the best on desktop. The current message is 173 characters long (including spaces). But ...
5
votes
1answer
337 views
How should double-click (to select text) on a space being handled?
When you have a text sentence, you likely know that you can double-click on any word to select it. That is very convenient and I personally use it a lot.
Background
To have a little bit of ...
-1
votes
2answers
487 views
Positioning two brands' logos on application header
I am designing an application where I have two brands' logos to be displayed on the header. Positioning two brand logos next to each other looks odd.
Which is the best way to position the logos on ...
1
vote
0answers
74 views
Reasons for the difference in design patterns for mobile to desktop vs. desktop to mobile
I want to follow up on a recent question that related to the WeChat Web experience but expand the scope of the question a little bit further: Is WeChat Web bad for UX?
In recent times companies that ...
3
votes
1answer
237 views
Why consoles/terminals usually have a black background?
In unix and window systems, the console has a black background. Is this historical or is there any UX reasoning behind it?
I'm working on a web based terminal and giving the window the look and feel ...
3
votes
4answers
136 views
Alternative to displaying multiple plan columns
I'm working on a pricing page that has 6 different plans. What is the optimal way of displaying them considering the limited amount of space we have?
Mobile isn't an issue since they will just be ...
1
vote
1answer
72 views
Optimising large navigation bars
How would you go about revamping a navigation as long as this while keeping all the links visible
On desktop
On mobile
0
votes
1answer
43 views
Adding ads to a top bar of a paid platform
What's your opinion about adding banners to the top navigation sticky bar of a paid platform for professional users?
2 important considerations:
Some of them are paying up to $5500 each year to use ...
0
votes
1answer
112 views
Absence planner - UX thoughts and recommendations
I hope you all have some nice Christmas days.
I'm currently working on a new and responsive version of our company absence planner using Googles Material Design. As I build it from scratch I would ...
2
votes
3answers
1k views
How to prompt existing customers to change their passwords
I'm looking for some UX examples of how other companies have handled this situation:
Scenario:
Devs are using an old password encrypting method (sha1) I believe and need to change it to a more secure ...
0
votes
2answers
138 views
Should a right-click in a desktop application always bring up a context menu?
In most every "modern" desktop application I've used, the right mouse click brings up some sort of context menu. In some though, especially high end engineering applications, right click is used to ...
0
votes
2answers
197 views
Need examples of applications similar to TurboTax [closed]
I'm currently working through an application very similar to how TurboTax functions. I have a paper form that needs to be entered by users into my application (see example" https://www.cms.gov/...
1
vote
1answer
422 views
Design patterns for desktop context switching
I'm working on a project which has, mobile / tablet / desktop designs which progressively reveal more content.
In our app we have two key 'modes'. It's similar to an online ide so you could call ...
