Questions tagged [gui-design]
Graphical User Interface design (GUI-design for short) refers to the visual aspect of designing computers, appliances, machines, mobile communication devices, software applications, and websites with the focus on the user's experience and interaction. Generally refers to digital rather than physical design.
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Should a toggle button show its current state or the state to which it will change?
I have a quick question about buttons that toggle between two states. (Think Play/Pause, or Shuffle/Regular Play.) As the title says, should the toggle show it's current state or the state to which it ...
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What explains the current shift from glossy UIs to matte UIs?
I've noticed an interesting phenomenon in the user interfaces of many famous applications, they're moving away from the glossy complex to a more dull and bare minimum design.
Why the sudden change? ...
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Are carousels effective?
Go to just about any eCommerce site and the homepage is nearly guaranteed to feature a carousel - an auto-rotating panel, usually with some sort of small navigation, usually highlighting new product ...
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Why might right aligned field labels be better?
For the longest time, I've used left-aligned labels in my forms, like this:
I did this because I thought having the labels left aligned made it easier for readers to scan the list of labels.
However,...
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When a button contains text and an icon, which should come first?
Assuming I'm optimizing for making it as fast and easy as possible for most users to find the button they need, what's the optimal ordering?
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Use up or down arrow to represent "sort ascending" at table header
To represent "sort ascending" (a -> b -> c -> ...) , my first sense told me that, I should use ↓ to represent it. This is because if I lay my data
a
b
c
It seems like thing is moving naturally ...
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Should a button become lighter or darker on hover?
We're having a discussion in the office about whether a button should become lighter or darker when a user hovers over it.
Here are some examples from the field:
Apple "Buy Now" button (Second is ...
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Should we kill the features that users are not using frequently, to improve performance?
According to the heat map that we generated for our app (an ad server), users rarely sort the items in the lists, they usually use the search to find the items they wanted to find. Developers said it ...
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What is the use of Google’s "Google Search" Button?
I'm sure whenever we used to type a keyword in the search bar of Google, the Google changes its search bar UI and the search button become useless in the home page.
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How can I best display a blank space character?
A web app I'm writing singles out individual characters found on a traditional keyboard. I have a very limited area in which the character can be displayed (which is basically the width of a W ...
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A UI/UX developer with color-blindness. Good or Bad idea or maybe a challenge?
I'm working as a front-end developer. I used to work on JavaScript technologies. But when it comes to UX and about choosing colors and stuff which I'm not able to understand well due to color ...
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Should I have a disabled button or no button at all, if the user doesn't have sufficient privileges for the action?
I would like advice on whether a disabled button is better than no button for a certain UI.
Basically, the regular (experienced) users can either comment on an issue or close it; the users with ...
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Is it possible to make a "good" options dialog?
One thing I'm struggling with, and have yet to see an example I'm happy with, is an options dialog (in a desktop app, if that makes any difference.) I'm having difficulties with my own, but they all ...
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What is this side menu called that can be found in many multi-touch apps, and where does it originate from?
It can be found for example in the YouTube and Facebook app.
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What is the significance of the three dots "..." on menus and buttons and how to use them right?
Adding three dots after the title of items in a dropdown menu seems to be a common practice (as you can see on the picture of a drop down menu in Google Chrome). They generally mean that there is ...
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How should you show that an accordion is expanded?
When you have an accordion, you need some way of showing the current state is expanded.
There are a number of different ways of handling this, and each is used by a number of respected websites and ...
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Why do editors (such as MS Office apps) have so much redundancy?
I'm thinking of making an editor and how it should differ against other editors. One of those points are promoting the work area over GUI buttons and information fields. Tool bars, menu bars, scroll ...
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Why are calculator screen digits right-aligned?
Is there any logical reason behind digit alignment on a calculator? If yes, can we apply this for visual interfaces of numbers on the web?
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Best UI to allow expert users to enter an ip address? (IPv4)
I am working on a web application which requires users to enter an IPv4 address (in dotted-quad decimal notation) for most of the primary tasks they need to perform. Our primary target "user" is a ...
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What kind of design do users like the most at the time of this question, 'Flat' or 'Skeuomorphic'? [closed]
I have read multiple articles on-line that say that the era of Skeuomorphic design on the web is over, and that a new era of so-called 'flat design' is now the new thing for developers, but do users ...
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What is the optimum button size of touch screen applications?
There was a not so recent blog post about the ideal button size of touch screen control sizes (sorry there is no link, the website is now a spam trap) that was based on the study form the MIT touch ...
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Most User Friendly Color Picker
I'm designing a website, and I need to allow the user to change the color of some elements. I will have to implement a color picker. What kind of color picker is the most user friendly, and looks best?...
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Is there a better character than the asterisk to indicate a modified document?
In Windows applications it seems to be a common way to indicate modified, unsaved documents with an asterisk * character.
E.g. this is how Visual Studio .NET 2012 indicates a modified document:
When ...
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Why does apple hide things in menus?
On a number of occasions, I've needed to change something in the settings of my mac, and I cannot see it in the relevant menu. After some googling, in emerges that the reason I cannot see this option ...
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Adding a "none of the above" option to a list of checkboxes
I am working on a series of complex life insurance forms and trying to optimize using standard conventions...
I have this nasty list of medical diseases and a mutually exclusive option, "None of the ...
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Why is the input field always at the bottom of a chat window?
It seems like the input field for writing your messages in a chat application is always placed at the bottom of the conversation.
Do we have any argument for this seen in a UX perspective?
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What's the point of a "Read full story" button?
I've noticed a lot of news websites, particularly on mobile, sometimes will cut off their story with a button you have to click to see the rest of it. I can understand why they'd do this if they ...
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What color to choose as "danger" if the main color of my app is red
I'm having this question wrapped around my head for quite some time. The thing is that my main application has a red color theme. And for just cancel buttons I used to use just gray colors but now ...
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How to visualize the possibility of drag'n'drop?
My web application contains a list of elements, which can be sorted by drag'n'drop. How should this feature be visually represented to users?
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What are the best practices for tooltips on mobile websites?
What are the best practices for tooltips on mobile websites? I'm designing the mobile version of a website for customers' accounts (where they can see their latest bill and settings for their accounts)...
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How can I make monochrome icons work?
My company has just implemented a monochrome icon theme in an attempt to transition to a more "modern" interface.
Feedback from the first round of user testing has been mixed:
Almost everybody ...
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Best color to display hot/cold but also on/off
I'm not really sure about some colours of one section of the application I am writing.
Basically, I need to have a section that displays if something is ON/OFF, but also HOT/COLD.
Now, usually, I ...
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Is it bad practice to use "Lorem Ipsum" example text in a text-preferences screen?
I'm the developer of an application where text plays a major role in the user interface. Users can adjust the style of the text in a preference screen. I have added an example text to the preference ...
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Why do most programs separate Find and Replace dialogs?
Why do most programs separate Find and Replace dialogs? Obviously, I'm talking about apps like text editors and word processors, apps that are used for editing content.
It just seems strange, at best,...
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Why do websites not use entire width of browser?
What reasons might a website not use the entire width of the browser, like Gmail does?
For example, StackOverflow does not use the entire width — it has left and right margins. This means the ...
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How should I allow a user to input a number where not all numbers are valid?
I have an application where users need to configure certain machine settings. One of these settings is an integer percentage value, from 1-100. Unfortunately, for historical reasons, we're not ...
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Better term for "Favorites"
I'm designing some surveillance camera footage. I'm adding a little "Favorites" section where the user could make a temporarily list of camera feeds to save and put at the top of the list, since there ...
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With infinite scrolling, do scrollbars still make sense?
I noticed this today on Google Plus:
Virtual Scrollbar in a Google+ Gallery
This is a virtual scrollbar, as opposed to native scrollbars everyone on Windows or pre-Lion OS X does know.
Now this ...
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Best UI for filtered search with many filtering options as opposed to single text field
What UI provides the best user experience when searching using many filters as opposed to a single text input.
For example: I have 15 filters (all optional) that users can filter results by. The ...
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Should disabled elements be focusable for accessibility purposes?
For example, if we have a set up wizard with 3 steps, and the user is on step 1, should the user be able to focus on the control to continue to the next step, regardless of whether or not that control ...
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How to show a "Yes" for a negative occurrence and "No" for a positive occurrence
I am working on an internal admin dashboard for a finance company and the PEP (Politically Exposed Person) section of a business is actually a negative thing because those are the people we do not ...
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Should the OK/Cancel buttons be aligned right or centered?
Where should I put the OK/Cancel buttons on my dialogs? At the bottom centered or aligned right? I've seen both and I personally don't care, but I want to create a consistent look across my ...
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Which color scheme to choose for applications that require long work hours?
I'm working on a ERP / Accounting (lots of tables and data) web app and was wondering what color scheme would be appropriate for this type of application? Users will be sitting in front of their ...
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Too many reports because report button is too convenient
I have an app that enables users to exercise questions.
The users have an option to report a faulty question.
The problem is that the users use the option too frequently.
The reviewer has checked the ...
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In a sign language dictionary, should video loop by default?
I am building a visual dictionary for a sign language. Part of the dictionary is a video function where you can see someone making the sign or signing a definition. These videos are pretty short, 1-2 ...
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How can I highlight errors when bright red is the main color of the brand?
I'm working on a mobile website for a client whose main brand color is red. The website header and headings are all red. CTA buttons are red too. How can I effectively separate errors (mostly in form ...
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When do users understand that a wizard navigation bar is clickable?
In my web application, I use a wizard navigation bar like the one in the image:
While getting feedback from a fellow designer, he asked me if the progress bar is clickable. In my mind, most wizard ...
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Why would you use 2 alternate layout buttons instead of 1, when only one can be selected at once
I was looking at the Spotify desktop app and noticed they use two buttons for displaying an artists albums in either a Grid layout or a List layout
See below:
If only one layout can be selected at ...
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What is the reason arrows are interpreted as direction?
What is the reason arrows are interpreted as direction?
Is this a cultural thing or is there something profoundly intuitive to it?
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Why is tree representation of data becoming unpopular?
I'm asking not about professional software like IDE's, but about OS GUI and web interfaces.
A few years ago there was File manager in Windows, Gopher and other interfaces and data models like this.
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