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Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

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Re: Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

#11

Post by zkhalique »

"It goes away with custom fonts" should be "It does away..."

Other than that, pretty cool! There may be a space for this...

Reminds me a bit of http://platform.qbix.com which we built to power social apps (on all devices).

One tip: if you're going to make it for business, have the demo document the keyboard shortcuts to get around quickly, like in gmail. Ideally your "front end framework" could have a controller that would accept a keymap object like {"a": "actionName", "r": "someOtherAction"} etc.

Re: Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

#12

Post by ivansavz »

What about OpenUI5 for business apps: https://openui5.hana.ondemand.com/#content/Controls/index.ht...

From my initial tests, it's very clean MVC (a bit verbose). Also the deploy story is not too good... (frontend code ships as a .war). Does anyone have experience with this, good or bad?

Re: Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

#13

Post by toddsiegel »

This is really cool and a nice start. One big thing we are dealing with in our internal app are responsive tables. We display some data in tables, but it almost always looks like crap on a small screen. There are a few different ways to solve this. Sometimes it makes sense to hide or abbreviate columns other times the table should neatly convert to a list. This is tougher.

I also like your search & filters design. I did something like this just last week, but I like yours better. ;-)

In some places you use semantic class names, like for messages, but for buttons you use colors. Probably better to just stick with a single convention for consistency.

Re: Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

#14

Post by Cthulhu_ »

rrrx3 wrote: post #5

I'd like to understand more about the rationale that led you down the path of creating this. In my years in enterprise, user and market research has driven the push to create UIs that are more compelling, that make users feel more at home and comfortable (as they would be with mobile and consumer products), while maintaining a more narrow focus on tasks instead of providing a generic one-size fits all paradigm. This…

My first assignment at my current employer was a short-term, fixed-price project where we had to create a rather boring internal web application that just showed some tables and sent off some pre-made requests to certain endpoints. The UX wasn't high on the priority list, and TBH I wish I had something like this back then, since we had to build our own, then send it off to some cheap designer that came back with shudder light blue gradients. I'd totally go for straight and sleek (and boring) like this project next time.

Re: Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

#15

Post by mhd »

toddsiegel wrote: post #13

This is really cool and a nice start. One big thing we are dealing with in our internal app are responsive tables. We display some data in tables, but it almost always looks like crap on a small screen. There are a few different ways to solve this. Sometimes it makes sense to hide or abbreviate columns other times the table should neatly convert to a list. This is tougher. I also like your search & filters design. I…

I think this is one area where we're going to see some changes even in the enterprise sector. Your average data-grids are pretty familiar to those used to working with spreadsheets, but pretty much everyone is used to rich list views, who also have the benefit of being a bit more responsive (not as good for editing data, though. Although with those gridforms, I do wonder...)

Granted, one screen isn't as heavy with data, but if you're trying to survey that much at once, you'd probably benefit from richer tooling anyways. I'd almost bet that a design that degrades gracefull from data grids to list views will have users resizing their browsers or picking portrait mode to get out of that.

Re: Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

#17

Post by mhd »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #14
rrrx3 wrote: post #5

I'd like to understand more about the rationale that led you down the path of creating this. In my years in enterprise, user and market research has driven the push to create UIs that are more compelling, that make users feel more at home and comfortable (as they would be with mobile and consumer products), while maintaining a more narrow focus on tasks instead of providing a generic one-size fits all paradigm. This…

My first assignment at my current employer was a short-term, fixed-price project where we had to create a rather boring internal web application that just showed some tables and sent off some pre-made requests to certain endpoints. The UX wasn't high on the priority list, and TBH I wish I had something like this back then, since we had to build our own, then send it off to some cheap designer that came back with shud…

Never mind that if "boring" isn't the wanted option, the alternative is probably pretty much dominated by corporate identity anyways, where a blank slate is better than some involved design (e.g. gradients, desktop-like 3D look or material design).

Re: Show HN: Front-end framework optimized for internal apps

#18

Post by jordache »

Great start!

One thing that I noticed immediately was the UX associated with the hamburger menu.

When the page content gets sufficiently long, you have the potential of scrolling beyond the hamburger menu. To jump to another page, you have to scroll to the top.

Potential solutions could be making the hamburger menu fixed to the upper-left corner, or provide UI widget to return to top of page.

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