February 4th, 2010
Version 3.6 of GUI Design Studio included a new element for creating Calendar controls.
When we started designing this feature, we looked around for examples of different calendars in desktop and web applications. We found a wide range of different designs; some with one month, some with 3 or 4, some highlighting “today”, others highlighting a particular day or a range of days. Of course, each application had quite a different visual design to its calendars as well.
In the past, we’ve tried to simplify elements and minimize the number of settings and options they have but, with this new element, we felt we had to provide for the increasing demand on design flexibility.
The problem, as all of you designers of great user interfaces will know, is that with flexibility comes complexity. We didn’t want to give you a tool which is hard to learn or slow to use because it has so many options and special cases, but we did want to give you a tool which will let you create the calendar design you need, quickly and simply.
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Tags: calendars, Example Designs, GUI Design Studio, options, styling, usability, User Interface Design
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January 28th, 2010
GUI Design Studio version 3.6 is now available for immediate download. This is most likely the last 3.x maintenance release before we launch version 4.0 next month. It contains some fixes and changes based on customer requests and is a free upgrade for all registered users.
For customers using any prior version of GUI Design Studio, simply install the new version and your existing licenses will continue to work.
Calendar Elements
With so many requests from users, we’ve finally added Calendar elements to the mix. This was essentially the last missing native Windows control and a common feature in a vast number of desktop and Web applications.
So why has it taken so long to appear? Well, that’s a very good question. Right from the start, with the version 1.0 release 5 years ago, we realized that calendar controls were important. But rather than create complex elements for every conceivable situation, the idea then was to provide basic building blocks from which other elements could be assembled.
The very first design samples library contained various calendar controls with different display options. We thought that this would be enough for simple mock-up purposes. Well, clearly, we were wrong! Creating calendar controls from scratch using text boxes and other elements is both tedious and time consuming, especially if you don’t want a design that’s stuck in 2005!
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Tags: GUI Design Studio, release, software prototyping, usability, User Interface Design
Posted in GUI Design Studio, Prototyping, Releases, User Interface Design | 1 Comment »
January 26th, 2010
Later this week we’ll be releasing what’s probably the last of the 3.x versions of GUI Design Studio before version 4.0 is released in about 5 weeks time.
Version 4 of GUI Design Studio represents a big move forward. The big areas of new features are Interactivity on Controls, Templates and Custom Elements.
In this post you’ll get an overview of the new Interaction features with suggestions on how you might use them (screenshots are subject to change before final release). You’ll also see how to get free access to beta versions of the software before the final release next month.
New Interaction Features
When you show a user interface design to a prospective user they are going to want to understand what the design will be like to use. They will need to try out the types of operations that will be important to them, in their work, trying to achieve their objectives.
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Tags: beta, GUI Design Studio, preview, v4.0
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January 21st, 2010
To some, it may seem like a trivial or even mundane point to even give any thought to this at all. But choosing suitable placement for your form labels can be very important indeed.
The experts at UXmatters have done extensive research in this area and have a lot to say on the subject.
In an article, published earlier this week, they provide detailed answers to a question about Label Alignment in Long Forms.
And that article is essentially a follow up to their Label Placement in Forms article published over 3 years ago but still as relevant today as it was then.
Using eye tracking tests with users, they tested the time spent filling forms and, specifically, the eye saccades between labels and entry fields. This basically showed how much effort was required by the eyes to scan the form and by the brain to make sense of what it was seeing.
Here’s my interpretation of the results:
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Tags: article, usability, user experience, User Interface Design
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January 11th, 2010
In the first two articles we discussed why you should consider creating prototypes and whether that prototype should have a role just in the design phase as a “Throwaway Prototype” versus an “Evolutionary Prototype” that may evolve into the final product.
While functional prototypes always involve development tools (and associated skills), there are, essentially, four classes of tool for creating user interface prototypes:
1. Pen and Paper
It doesn’t get any more low tech than this, which is great because it means that absolutely anyone can take part in the design process. User interface designs can be hand drawn or pre-prepared stocks of user interface elements can be laid out on a page.
Paper sketches can be produced very quickly but making alterations to a design can be somewhat difficult leading to repeated effort if a design needs to be restarted from scratch. It’s often best to spend more time thinking before committing pen to paper.
In test and review situations, Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: article, software prototyping
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