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Rules for creating good-looking user interfaces

weberdominik.com

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Re: Rules for creating good-looking user interfaces

#171

Post by eviks »

funcDropShadow wrote: post #170
eviks wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, sure, those are indeed major fails in all of the OSes - no guides and no easy way to find anything about fundamental operations (it should be easier than googling). But these are separate issues. For example, even with the scrollbars there can be a change between two behaviors: click on the empty bar jumps to that % or jumps by 1 page. And one can be a click and another a Shift-Click - where in the OS would you d…

But with a visible scrollbar you would have a visible indication which behavior you triggered. If the scrollbar is invisible you get a changed viewport in both cases but you have to infer which gesture triggers which behavior.

No, when you use a scrollbar it becomes visible, so you get exactly the same indication

Re: Rules for creating good-looking user interfaces

#172

Post by KronisLV »

whstl wrote: post #158
KronisLV wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this, it’s like people live in completely different worlds when it comes to getting stuff out the door. Of course, that’s still better than a 1 pizza team of full stack devs attempting to create their custom UI component library from scratch, now that’s a total mess.

Grandparent here. Alright, I totally believe you and everyone else, and would probably also be much happier in a less wasteful environment that you mention. In which industry/company size are you? Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places.

Unfortunately the environments without dedicated designers are also likely to be understaffed or under tight deadlines.

Think along the lines of companies with either Of course, it's also possible for companies without the actual means to delude themselves into thinking that they must do everything Google or other big orgs do - that's how you get bad bespoke components and frameworks without the mettle to make them good, as well as stuff like architectures based on microservices without a good reason to do so and so on.

Re: Rules for creating good-looking user interfaces

#173

Post by derangedHorse »

keyle wrote: post #17

As a designer first turned developers in the early 2000, I beg of you to learn the gestalt. Frameworks, languages, computers, come and go, but the human body doesn't change and the knowledge I have in design, I carry every day and have barely changed over the years. Sure there are new patterns now... "hamburger buttons" and swiping, but the logic remains the same. Human's don't change quickly. They discover things th…

This does not strike me as a way one should go about making "good-looking user interfaces" as described in the article. What you are describing is UX, and UX doesn't necessarily imply an aesthetically pleasing UI. I can make things that are very useable but don't look very nice.

Re: Rules for creating good-looking user interfaces

#174

Post by serpenskisidiot »

mtillman wrote: post #133
keyle wrote: post #17

As a designer first turned developers in the early 2000, I beg of you to learn the gestalt. Frameworks, languages, computers, come and go, but the human body doesn't change and the knowledge I have in design, I carry every day and have barely changed over the years. Sure there are new patterns now... "hamburger buttons" and swiping, but the logic remains the same. Human's don't change quickly. They discover things th…

Designers who remove scroll bars and window borders so you can’t click and drag are computing’s version of a terrorist. It’s an active assault on performance.

"minimalism" doing everything except its intended purpose

Re: Rules for creating good-looking user interfaces

#175

Post by Biganon »

oleggromov wrote: post #42

It's such an irony that for such a topic, website content is actually overflowing on a mobile safari and gets out of the container so the website appears broken.

Also, grey text on black background. The epitome of good design, as everyone knows.

Re: Rules for creating good-looking user interfaces

#176

Post by j45 »

keyle wrote: post #17

As a designer first turned developers in the early 2000, I beg of you to learn the gestalt. Frameworks, languages, computers, come and go, but the human body doesn't change and the knowledge I have in design, I carry every day and have barely changed over the years. Sure there are new patterns now... "hamburger buttons" and swiping, but the logic remains the same. Human's don't change quickly. They discover things th…

I wish there was a community for designers turned developers.

Re: Rules for creating good-looking user interfaces

#177

Post by feoren »

keyle wrote: post #17

As a designer first turned developers in the early 2000, I beg of you to learn the gestalt. Frameworks, languages, computers, come and go, but the human body doesn't change and the knowledge I have in design, I carry every day and have barely changed over the years. Sure there are new patterns now... "hamburger buttons" and swiping, but the logic remains the same. Human's don't change quickly. They discover things th…

Your advice is completely un-actionable. "Learn the gestalt?" Do you mean the principles of gestalt design? Because half of those are entirely about designing clever logos, not about making useful UX. If designers spent less time gooning over the FedEx logo, everyone would be better off. The remaining principles are good to understand, but all the challenge is in applying them for specific cases.

Or do you mean: simply understand all of human psychology and design UIs that work for everyone? That seems to be what you're saying, but both are impossible. Nobody really understands human psychology, especially those who think they do. Show me a psychology finding that is applicable to UI design and I'll show you a study of 30 college freshman that doesn't replicate. And you cannot design a UI that is intuitive for everyone; people are too different, and the "average person" literally doesn't exist.

So what exactly is your advice? Know everything and apply that knowledge appropriately for your specific situation? React and Kubernetes have clear documentation, tutorials, and canonical ways of doing things. UX design has a couple of clever books. The analogue of "just learn good UX design" is not "just learn React", it's "just learn how to write readable, maintainable, clear, performant code everywhere." It takes decades.

Re: Rules for creating good-looking user interfaces

#178

Post by whstl »

codr7 wrote: post #159
amonith wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's the funny thing though (as a developer which worked for various companies that didn't have designers): It looks custom designed because... it's not designed at all :D At this point I'm not even sure if what you said is an insult or a compliment. Almost all projects I worked in looked more or less like the following: - a BA meets with the client and creates unstyled wireframes with all of the requested features…

And on the rare occasions where there is a designer on the team, they just throw their fantasy user interfaces over the fence to be interpreted by developers as well as blamed for any complaints. What we really need is developers with solid design skills, that should have been part of fullstack from the start.

Totally agree. I can count on my hands the number of developers that actually produce consistent good-looking shit.

And the number is *two* if I count the ones who also understand technical nuances, accessibility and proper usability.

Re: Rules for creating good-looking user interfaces

#179

Post by 1718627440 »

guappa wrote: post #65
VerifiedReports wrote: post #5

Saw a lot of words here. Not a lot of examples. "Dark mode was one of the most requested features for Lighthouse. I refrained a long time from adding it because it adds additional work to every UI task." This reveals a lot about the regression in OSes. Way back in the early '90s, Windows provided a color-scheme editor. Users could set up any color scheme they liked, and all properly-written apps would inherit it and…

It's still there on KDE

Same on Mate (aka GNOME 2).

Re: Rules for creating good-looking user interfaces

#180

Post by wpm »

naasking wrote: post #151
wpm wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I immediately don’t trust this book because the example on the page of the list UI puts a big red X over the version I prefer and find easier to read.

Half agree. The left version I feel has too many sharp lines and bold distinguishing features, so you don't know where to look, where the version on the right has too few so you don't know where to look.

I know exactly where to look, the little squiggly lines called letters and numbers, nicely separated from other rows with actual visible separators, instead of just floating out in the same ocean of grey.
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