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Article #108

News User Interface Guidelines

#108
From: Eskandar Ensafi
Date: Mon, 02 Nov 1992 22:42
43 lines
2489 bytes
Hello,

It seems that with each software release, we get some new user interface  
guidelines and the first people to break them are at NeXT.  To name a few:

1) NeXT windows are awkward for horizontal resizing -- you have to go all the
   way to the bottom.  And I can fool anyone into thinking that a window has
   a resize bar just by arranging three groove-bordered boxes in the lower edge
   of the window using InterfaceBuilder -- UI elements should be UNIQUE!

2) The slider class is -- well, at the risk of opffending anyone -- ugly and
   inconsistent.  The slider knob is too bulky, while the color panel uses
   sliders that are too thin and look especially ugly on a monchrome system.

3) Now that we have a scrollview with multiple columns (DBKit), one would
   expect to see it used in the File Viewer's "Listing" mode.  But no, it
   is only used for DBKit, so all other apps have their own little schemes
   mutli-column scrollviews (PrintManager, Workspace, etc.)

4) And there is more... (e.g. tiles in application dock need to use
   transparency (a feature that NeXT often boasts about) to avoid the artifact
   of having their top and left sides blending away into a white background,
   etc...

I have designed images of what NeXT windows, sliders, tiles, miniwindows,  
etc... should look like.  If you are interested in maintaining good looks and  
consistency in NeXTstep, please send me e-mail (I won't check for responses in  
Net News) at esky@marathon.cs.ucla.edu.

I have seen so many UI violations and ugly IB layouts that I can't help  
believing this:

In article <6491@news.duke.edu> bain0002@bullnext.mc.duke.edu (Landen Bain)  
writes:
>>At a Sun non-disclosure meeting, the Sun representative said that "seven  
>>high-level NeXT engineers called Sun and were hired immediately".  The rep  
>>said that "Sun's icons should improve dramatically in the near future".   
>>Huh???????


Let's get something done to preserve NeXTstep.

Thanks.
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From: esky@marathon.cs.ucla.edu (Eskandar Ensafi)
Subject: News User Interface Guidelines
Message-ID: <1992Nov2.224220.26890@cs.ucla.edu>
Sender: usenet@cs.ucla.edu (Mr Usenet)
Nntp-Posting-Host: marathon.cs.ucla.edu
Reply-To: esky@marathon.cs.ucla.edu
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
Date: Mon, 2 Nov 92 22:42:20 GMT
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