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Show HN: Enterface, a UI design app concept I'm designing

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Re: Show HN: Enterface, a UI design app concept I'm designing

#52
post #48

Wow.. this has just about everything. Why not take just the most important layout and design features and create a tool that can output actual web pages? I'll tell you why. Because web developers code in CSS and HTML. If you can just export a web page, then it takes away their "programming" work. If we took 1/100th of the effort used to create mockup tools, we could have 10 really great graphical interactive web page…

Have you ever built a webpage? There are many optimizations that simple software just isn't going to come through on.

Have you ever SEO'd a site? That is something that certainly takes semantics into account and does so in a way that affects every page and their relationships.

Interface design is a separate process entirely, and its focus should not always be constrained by the engineering it would take to actually code the interface.

If it would take so little effort to make such a software, it would certainly exist. The mockup tools out there are pretty primitive and also fairly limited in number. What you describe is certainly in the future, but to be truly good it will require some very sophisticated technology.

Re: Show HN: Enterface, a UI design app concept I'm designing

#53
post #48

Wow.. this has just about everything. Why not take just the most important layout and design features and create a tool that can output actual web pages? I'll tell you why. Because web developers code in CSS and HTML. If you can just export a web page, then it takes away their "programming" work. If we took 1/100th of the effort used to create mockup tools, we could have 10 really great graphical interactive web page…

It's made for a different purpose but scrollkit has the most critical layout/design features and the output is vanilla html/css:

http://www.scrollkit.com

Re: Show HN: Enterface, a UI design app concept I'm designing

#54
post #48

Wow.. this has just about everything. Why not take just the most important layout and design features and create a tool that can output actual web pages? I'll tell you why. Because web developers code in CSS and HTML. If you can just export a web page, then it takes away their "programming" work. If we took 1/100th of the effort used to create mockup tools, we could have 10 really great graphical interactive web page…

Have you ever built a webpage? There are many optimizations that simple software just isn't going to come through on. Have you ever SEO'd a site? That is something that certainly takes semantics into account and does so in a way that affects every page and their relationships. Interface design is a separate process entirely, and its focus should not always be constrained by the engineering it would take to actually c…

I've been building web pages and web applications for many years.

What optimizations do you think that software can't do that justifies hand coding CSS and HTML? Probably the first one is related to autosizing layouts.. but guess what, graphical editors CAN do that. Regardless, the majority of web pages today STILL are fixed width.

There are plenty of tools and platforms that demonstrate the concept of graphical UI and application editors. Less so in the web space but there are still several out there. Most are not very popular and are missing some important features like open extensibility.

I have studied SEO and done some of that. Let's get specific. What exactly do you think needs to be in the markup or relations between pages in order for Google to give you a fair representation?

Are you really trying to say that if the div class isn't "whysuperspam.com" or something that it won't get a good Google ranking?

Re: Show HN: Enterface, a UI design app concept I'm designing

#55

Hey guys, thanks for all the feedback. Right now Enterface is just a concept, hence no call to action. I would love to have it developed, if only for my own use! I'll need my own icon, too...

well, give http://Salon.io a spin .. here´s an invite for you http://salon.io/users/sign_up?token=H7DqXNBcUFAnXtRQYExr

Re: Show HN: Enterface, a UI design app concept I'm designing

#56

For anyone interested in a real, shipping app that offers many of the niceties of Enterface, check out Antetype: http://www.antetype.com I decided to use it for doing the high fidelity mockups of Enterface, and it turned out to have a lot of the stuff I was looking for. I still want my app, though :-)

That looks even better. Thanks.

Re: Show HN: Enterface, a UI design app concept I'm designing

#57
post #48

Wow.. this has just about everything. Why not take just the most important layout and design features and create a tool that can output actual web pages? I'll tell you why. Because web developers code in CSS and HTML. If you can just export a web page, then it takes away their "programming" work. If we took 1/100th of the effort used to create mockup tools, we could have 10 really great graphical interactive web page…

It's made for a different purpose but scrollkit has the most critical layout/design features and the output is vanilla html/css: http://www.scrollkit.com

Yeah I really like your application and you guys have inspired me to keep working on my system.. I think that it should be as easy as you make it to put text, images etc. on the page. I have been working on something similar but open source and more comprehensive which it has a bunch of other stuff like custom plugins, widgets and forms/blogs. Its taking a long time for me to finish because its so involved.

Re: Show HN: Enterface, a UI design app concept I'm designing

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's too much focus on web-based software. This type of product is ideal native, even with all the collaboration features.

Why do you consider it "ideal native?" What was a good case for a desktop app even two years ago works fine on the web today (e.g., WebGL stuff, canvas-based apps.) Chances are this will be even more true 1-2 years from now (when a product like this would have become quite polished.) A web app can offer cheap distribution, a more iterative development cycle, split testing, more monetization flexibility, piracy protec…

For me, the first half of that list is just as easy natively. Larger market from day one, platform, virulence - I can see that. But what of robustness? Access to lower level features in order to create something huge, fast and efficient. without being held back by the browser. Not to mention do I hate not being able to work without an internet connection.

Thinking on it more, you can leverage so much of both worlds and make the best thing ever.

Re: Show HN: Enterface, a UI design app concept I'm designing

#60
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever built a webpage? There are many optimizations that simple software just isn't going to come through on. Have you ever SEO'd a site? That is something that certainly takes semantics into account and does so in a way that affects every page and their relationships. Interface design is a separate process entirely, and its focus should not always be constrained by the engineering it would take to actually c…

I've been building web pages and web applications for many years. What optimizations do you think that software can't do that justifies hand coding CSS and HTML? Probably the first one is related to autosizing layouts.. but guess what, graphical editors CAN do that. Regardless, the majority of web pages today STILL are fixed width. There are plenty of tools and platforms that demonstrate the concept of graphical UI a…

Not saying that it goes back to semantic classes or anything like that, but if aligning alt tags, creating hierarchy with headings, being smart about the order of the code vs the order it appears- all those things are going to require 'coding'in a UI that is just as work intensive as coding them in the traditional sense.
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