Jim Lawrence
accessd at shaw.ca
Sun Sep 4 15:44:53 CDT 2011
The new Windows has embraced "pretty"...semi-transparent rounded window thick borders are even a little over the top for me...but maybe my age is showing. The kids, those under 40, just love this stuff and that love is making Apple the riches company on the planet. Jim -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Charlotte Foust Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2011 12:03 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] User interface I've always hated the apple UI. It was never intuitive to me, so I'm in the minority who prefers the alternative, whether on the PC or on a phone. As far as pretty being important, I think elegant is ahead of that, or maybe we're using different words for the same thing. I don't want to be awestruck by the beauty of the UI, merely at home with it and comfortable finding what I need without being offended by the look (think, some of the Windows themes!). The traditional Windows UI didn't focus on rounded corners, but they're everywhere in the last few versions of Visual Studio and Windows, and in fact, the messageboxes, various window edges, and so forth have had rounded corners for a long time. Charlotte Foust On Sun, Sep 4, 2011 at 11:47 AM, Jim Lawrence <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote: > I like the Windows Small phone design. It is a lot cleaner that I would > have > suspected. I am also am very familiar with the Windows so I would hardly be > a person to be predisposed to make an objective or negative opinion. > > OTOH, design and layout of an application is as important as the design and > development of the code. The average user just does not care what is > under-the-hood. Pretty is always most important...think no further than our > obsession with models. > > Most of my work is with web sites and there are always very basic > rules...like everything must read from top-left to bottom-right. (European > standard) Most sites work with the two or three-column design...all have > headers and footers. After that, there are many more abstract and fresh > layouts. > > When surfing, everyone knows when they have landed on a corporate or a geek > or a store or an application site. It is all about the layout. > > Companies like MS, Apple, Google and even Linux have spent as much money on > their product UI designs as on the coding. In the Linux world there are two > schools of design, the Gnome (apple like) and KDE (windows like) > interfaces. > In recent years a great deal of study has gone into just how people > logically (intuitively) think. > > The Apple type layouts assume people think in specific logical patterns and > clutter just confuses. Less is best. Single forms but more effort is placed > on transitions, showing depth and graphics. > > Windows type layouts have everything of an application shown...if there are > 50 choices there are 50 buttons. There are no transitions as a feature is > either off or on, there are no rounded curves and there are no shadows. > Everything runs from a single desktop. > > It is so personal as to which interface is more intuitional but the current > trends are towards the "Apple/Gnome" like interfaces...of course that trend > or fashion could change. > > For me, it is what ever the user wants. Right now Gnome UI is running two > to > one, in popularity and finally the new Windows phone interface is very > lean, > similar but different (more block layout) to the Gnome uncluttered > interface. > > Jim > > > -----Original Message----- > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock > Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2011 6:51 AM > To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com > Subject: Re: [AccessD] User interface > > Hi Arthur and Jim > > Really? I find GMail to represent an horror example of bad (or lacking) > design - with a mess of colours, buttons and pop-ups everywhere, yellow and > green bars, boring fonts. No style. > Contrary to this, the redesigned live.com > > (hotmail etc.) is a good example > on how very similar pages can appear much lighter and neater by use of a > simple tricks like careful colouring and shading, stylish fonts, and just a > few frames (with right-angled corners; round corners should be forbidden by > law!). > > Currently Microsoft is way ahead of anyone else regarding design with > Windows Phone 7 and now Windows 8 as the stellar examples of the Metro > project. Even the ribbon has proved right for me as I'm now able to use > PowerPoint which I previously stayed off. Now it is even fun! That tells it > all. > > The interesting and encouraging part is, that this is the result of hard > work by several teams of very skilled and brave persons, not just some > fancy > ideas. They are being bashed from many sides which - could one believe - > want Windows 3.11 and Word 2.0 back. MS management deserves credit for > having promoted design to have top priority. > > /gustav > > > >>> fuller.artful at gmail.com 02-09-2011 21:28:01 >>> > I think of Google as the UI par excellence. Lean and clean and decidedly > not > noisy. I admire their design sense immensely. > > A. > > > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com