This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)
1–10 of 38 posts
Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)
#2Wow, that's pretty brutal...
I think that an engineer can learn design, however. Certainly a standard CS education doesn't necessarily teach you those skills, but one can definitely develop them over time. It takes a good design sense and a good engineering capability to build great user experiences. Often you can't get that in one person, but when you can, one can accomplish that much more.
Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)
#3Wow, that's pretty brutal... I think that an engineer can learn design, however. Certainly a standard CS education doesn't necessarily teach you those skills, but one can definitely develop them over time. It takes a good design sense and a good engineering capability to build great user experiences. Often you can't get that in one person, but when you can, one can accomplish that much more.
Isn't KISS always the key?
Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)
#4The worst example I've ever seen:
http://www.gisinfo.ru/images/map2005_desk.gif
Count just the flashlight icons, there's 16 of them. And three Help icons next to each other. But the best part is the vertical sequence of icon mutations in the lower left center.
Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)
#5It's really easy to judge but without context it's rather pointless. If that is a consumer app then yes, it's far too complex. If however it's a specialist app to be used by a trained operator then that may well be the perfect, most optimal and efficient display of the information they (the trained operator) want.
Just thought I'd mention that although I agree with your general point speaking as an engineer that has created some crimes against HID and been saved by a designer.
Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)
#6I don't think it's for want of design ability - as rantfoil said a standard CS education just doesn't educate an engineer about how to design better. I think the lack of UCD emphasis is pretty strange really, it's not like even just considering the user requires graphic design skills or anything...
Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)
#7It doesn't look too bad. Seems like some sort of bug tracking or issue tracking software. The middle section displays bugs. The top section lets you select what bugs to display. The bottom section displays information about the bug. The bit green "+" is used to add new bugs. It's not beautiful, but it gets the job done.
Edit: For comparison, look at these screenshots of FogBugz and Bugzilla
http://www.lazygray.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/prev... http://www.mozilla.org/frontpage/productShotBugzilla.jpg
Software needs to be functional before it's beautiful. Ideally, you have both, but sometimes you need to prioritize.
Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)
#8"This is what happens when you let someone who is lousy at designing interfaces, design interfaces."
Fixed that for you.
Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)
#9I think this is overly harsh. As far as I can tell, this is a program made by a single person in their spare time and was then open sourced. This is what happens when someone develops an application for themselves based around their own needs and then decided other people might want to use it - I'm sure the developer didn't set out to create a "great user experience".
Controversially, despite its ugliness and widget abuse, it does have some things going for it - it's largely self-explanatory and unambiguous and is probably incredibly quick to use due to its general lack of reliance on tabs and submenus.
A better example of a truly bad interface is Lotus Notes 7 - its UI was an utter disaster yet the application remained popular. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ln7.jpg - thankfully much, much improved with Lotus Notes 8 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lotus_Notes_8_home.png)
Re: This is what happens when you let programmers design interfaces (PNG)
#10It doesn't look too bad. Seems like some sort of bug tracking or issue tracking software. The middle section displays bugs. The top section lets you select what bugs to display. The bottom section displays information about the bug. The bit green "+" is used to add new bugs. It's not beautiful, but it gets the job done. Edit: For comparison, look at these screenshots of FogBugz and Bugzilla http://www.lazygray.com/bl…
I think Bugzilla is an example of a web application with an extremely badly designed user interface - I find it very frustrating to use in general with unclear navigation and excessive clutter.
Compare it to trac, an application that has basically the same functionality yet is a joy to use (e.g http://trac.edgewall.org/ticket/6614)