Some new GUI's in our gallery

[Michael Aivaliotis]

Love this stuff:

http://forums.lavag.org/GUI-user10874-album79.html

Note: When viewing the main image page, click on the image to get a larger size in a thickbox.

[Mads]

QUOTE (Michael_Aivaliotis @ Mar 13 2008, 08:58 AM)

Love this stuff:

http://forums.lavag.org/GUI-user10874-album79.html

Note: When viewing the main image page, click on the image to get a larger size in a thickbox.

Cool idea, having a GUI gallery. It's often difficult to figure out good designs so inspiration - or stealing some good ideas - is great:-)

LabVIEW GUIs have a tendency to look...well - like LabVIEW GUIs, non-standard colors, 3D buttons etc.

The examples so far avoid most of that, but there is a big no no in the upper left corner of the windows - a window name that ends with .vi. Aligning and making all of the controls in a group the same size would be another tip, makes it look a bit cleaner. It's always easier to criticize than to make things yourself though:-)

[Justin Goeres]

Is there a way to make all the GUI galleries accessible from one place? Right now it looks like each one is just a personal gallery of the user who created it. That means, for instance, that Israel Carrión's gallery and Carlos Calderon's gallery are totally separate, and if you're looking at one of them there's no indication the other one even exists. (Case in point: those are the only two I know about. Are there others?)

[Michael Aivaliotis]

QUOTE (Justin Goeres @ Mar 13 2008, 05:19 AM)

Is there a way to make all the GUI galleries accessible from one place? Right now it looks like each one is just a personal gallery of the user who created it. That means, for instance, that Israel Carrión's gallery and Carlos Calderon's gallery are totally separate, and if you're looking at one of them there's no indication the other one even exists. (Case in point: those are the only two I know about. Are there others?)

We could create a LabVIEW GUI category and them all placed there.

[JDave]

QUOTE (Michael_Aivaliotis @ Mar 13 2008, 09:33 AM)

We could create a LabVIEW GUI category and them all placed there.

If you're looking for feedback, I think it's a great idea. :thumbup:

[John Lokanis]

QUOTE (Mads @ Mar 13 2008, 02:43 AM)

but there is a big no no in the upper left corner of the windows - a window name that ends with .vi.

And an Icon that is the default LV Icon. If you are going to go to the trouble of doing all that custom graphics, then make a nice App icon (in all the various sizes and color depths) as well.

That said, those are some nice FPs.

Personally, my general rule for GUI design is, if another LV dev can tell it was written in LabVIEW, I have failed. For that reason, I study the style guildlines of the target OS before building my GUIs.

[pallen]

QUOTE (jlokanis @ Mar 13 2008, 06:58 PM)

Personally, my general rule for GUI design is, if another LV dev can tell it was written in LabVIEW, I have failed. For that reason, I study the style guildlines of the target OS before building my GUIs.

Maybe it's just me, or my limited customer base; But I've never really had a problem with LabVIEW applications looking like LabVIEW applications. Since our customers are usually the ones specifying LabVIEW, I wouldn't think they have a problem with that either. (Especially considering what UIs used to look like with Visual Designer)

That said, I do really like some of the examples in the gallery. Looks like a number of them might be borrowing graphics and backgrounds from Linux distros.

[crelf]

Making "pretty" UIs are all very well, but the absolute number one most important thing is: does it meet the system requirements? If a requirement is that it look "cool" (which it never would be, as "looking cool" isn't easily measureable, so how can it be a true system requirement? ) then so be it. I absolutely admit that the UIs in the gallaries are visually appealing, but the real question is: "why are they appealing"? Is it because they're intuative? Colorful? Well laid-out?

I've written a couple of articles on appropriate UI design. I feel that sometimes we get caught up in over engineering things without true and honest thought for both the system requirements and the end user. Wouldn't you prefer an app with an intuative UI that works, or an app with a pretty UI that doesn't?

Article 1: User Interface Design - More than just a pretty face…

Article 2: User Interface Design - Elemental Layout

[PJM_labview]

QUOTE (crelf @ Mar 18 2008, 12:11 PM)

...

I've written a couple of articles on appropriate UI design. I feel that sometimes we get caught up in over engineering things without true and honest thought for both the system requirements and the end user. Wouldn't you prefer an app with an intuative UI that works, or an app with a pretty UI that doesn't?

...http://forums.lavag.org/blog/crelfs_technology_articles/index.php?showentry=142' target="_blank">

Well if I have to choose, I want a working app with a pretty intuitive UI.

PJM

[Louis Manfredi]

QUOTE (pallen @ Mar 18 2008, 02:46 PM)

Maybe it's just me, or my limited customer base; But I've never really had a problem with LabVIEW applications looking like LabVIEW applications.

Me Niether, In most cases my work is for one-off or a few-off systems, for use by engineers who know the app. is written in LabVIEW, who might even know how to code LabVIEW themselves... No harm, that I can see, if it looks like LabVIEW, so long as it responds in relatively predictable and graceful ways to the user's attempt to control it.

Best, Louis

[crelf]

QUOTE (PJM_labview @ Mar 18 2008, 04:34 PM)

Well if I have to choose, I want a working app with a pretty intuitive UI.

QUOTE (Louis Manfredi @ Mar 18 2008, 05:39 PM)

No harm, that I can see, if it looks like LabVIEW, so long as it responds in relatively predictable and graceful ways to the user's attempt to control it.

Right - my customers want to test their products. I've never had a requirement of "does not look like it was written in LabVIEW"

[Justin Goeres]

It's not LabVIEW, but just for giggles here's a screenshot of one of the most appaling UIs I've ever seen:

That's the actual application window. It's an application I tried to use briefly a few years ago, when I was looking for a tool to change the icons on some EXE files. Some of those colored areas are (clusters of) buttons, some are drag & drop receivers, etc. It made my eyes bleed.

I wish I had a better-quality screenshot, but that's the best I found on the net, and I'll be dambed if I'm going to subject myself to that again just for a LAVA post .

[crelf]

QUOTE (Justin Goeres @ Mar 19 2008, 02:04 AM)

...here's a screenshot of one of the most appaling UIs I've ever seen...

[LAVA 1.0 Content]

QUOTE (crelf @ Mar 18 2008, 09:11 PM)

Right - my customers want to test their products. I've never had a requirement of "does not look like it was written in LabVIEW"

I have had three request of that type in the last 6 months. Two of the three are apps that will be resold as exe's. The third is not suppsed to even look like its software.

Ben

[crelf]

QUOTE (neB @ Mar 21 2008, 08:35 AM)

I have had three request of that type in the last 6 months.

Seriously? The customer specifically requested that the software not look like it was written in LabVIEW?

QUOTE (neB @ Mar 21 2008, 08:35 AM)

The third is not suppsed to even look like its software.

Ummmmmmm... how do you acheive that?!?

[Michael Aivaliotis]

So just to check. Should I create a User Interface category for the Gallery?... and if I do, I expect a "surge" of new images right?

[CarlosCalderon]

CITA(Michael_Aivaliotis @ Mar 21 2008, 12:14 PM)

So just to check. Should I create a User Interface category for the Gallery?... and if I do, I expect a "surge" of new images right?

Good Idea!. Yes you should create a category of User Interface in the gallery LAVA.

That would be a plus to publicize the wide range of applications that can be developed in LabVIEW.

So too is a plus for the LAVA Group. I take to tell them that here in Loja, Ecuador, LabVIEW is the language most widely used both in the academy and in industrial applications medium-scale and hence LAVA is the forum for discussion that we use both for a look at new developments in these unconventional technology and to support the applications that we are developing.

Then LAVA also would referring with regard to the development of GUIs based on LabVIEW.

Parallel to this gallery, you should also create a repository of tips for developing user interface, I quote some very good tutorials but isolated:

Two tutorials, Cool! of Christopher Relf (in this website)

Jim Kring could help us with some notes. Their products are very good and very funcional. I Hope he shares us their tips and tricks.

Interface Designer's Workshop of the company BetterView Consulting (www.bettervi.com)....

...

Greetings!

Carlos Calderón

[Norm Kirchner]

QUOTE (Michael_Aivaliotis @ Mar 21 2008, 12:14 PM)

So just to check. Should I create a User Interface category for the Gallery?... and if I do, I expect a "surge" of new images right?

Not so sure you will.

Many of ours may be clean, but after the first flood of pretty ones, I would feel rather....vanilla.

[eaolson]

QUOTE (Norm Kirchner @ Mar 25 2008, 09:59 AM)

Many of ours may be clean, but after the first flood of pretty ones, I would feel rather....vanilla.

I, for one, would like to see some "vanilla" UIs, if just to get a feel for what more typical VIs look like "in the wild."

[LAVA 1.0 Content]

agreed