OSDev.org

Hi,

I was wondering about GUIs. From one point of view, it hasn't changed much since it's original conception. There is a desktop (background) mainly static, a menu for interfacing programs (either in a taskbar, on a button or hidden), and applications are represented as windows, or simply moveable canvas'. Now I do believe this means "it works", but I was wondering about what "radical" changes could be made to it.

For example I remember reading some papers about the excess of text on GUIs (text requires reading, aka. processing, while an image could be spotted easly since you spend much time decoding the color and major format of it, instead of searching for details). I also recall something about the bad use of screen corners, ie. the place a fast strong diagonal mouse movement leads to.

As for alternative results, I remember something about project that represented the GUI as a cube, where the files where scattered on the floor, and you could easly organize them.

Could you please post your ideas and/or opinions about innovative GUI design and also if possible point to projects that focus on this? Thanks,

JVFF

I've been thinking a bit about the GUI I want to design for my OS, here is one idea: Instead of having a ton of task's displayed in the task bar by title, it would show a small icon, say 32x32 or 48x48, that displayed the actual stuff (scaled of course) in the app, either that or stick with the text based, but show this type of icon (except bigger,maybe 128x128) when you did a mouse over. Also, about the corner thing, the complaint as I hear it, is when an app is fullscreen, it has a border of a few pixels, what's the point if it's full screen, now if I wanted to quickly click the X, i have to move my mouse to the top right, then back a little! The file menu could be at the top, so you can click file,edit,etc easier, you move completely to the top of screen, then you only have to worry about horizontal movement, this will also save some time. Not sure how big a deal it is, and most people wouldn't even notice a difference, but in general the time required would be less.

Please do not take this reply as an invitation to flame war.

Ready4Dis wrote:I've been thinking a bit about the GUI I want to design for my OS, here is one idea: Instead of having a ton of task's displayed in the task bar by title, it would show a small icon, say 32x32 or 48x48, that displayed the actual stuff (scaled of course) in the app, either that or stick with the text based, but show this type of icon (except bigger,maybe 128x128) when you did a mouse over.

Mac OS X does this already. Just turn magnification on in Dock preferences.

Also, about the corner thing, the complaint as I hear it, is when an app is fullscreen, it has a border of a few pixels, what's the point if it's full screen, now if I wanted to quickly click the X, i have to move my mouse to the top right, then back a little! The file menu could be at the top, so you can click file,edit,etc easier, you move completely to the top of screen, then you only have to worry about horizontal movement, this will also save some time. Not sure how big a deal it is, and most people wouldn't even notice a difference, but in general the time required would be less.

Very true. Mac OS also tends to be quite consistent with this. For example, you can configure Expose (fancy alternative to Windows alt-tab for the non-Mac inclined) to activate whenever you mouse into one of the screen corners. Also, whether you love or hate always having the menu bar at the top of the screen, it certainly allows your mouse to reach the menus much faster and more accurately. For these reasons I find myself feeling less constantly annoyed when using a Mac (disclaimer: I don't own one, but am planning to switch soon).

More on topic, I can't think of any revolutionary changes in metaphors that would make GUIs much better, without equally revolutionary changes in input and display technology. For modern machines, I think more careful attention to the details of human psychology is needed. A lot of small improvements can really smooth out the user experience.

For something really futuristic and cool, check this out:

http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalkspla ... ?key=j_han

Thanks for the info, I have never really used a Mac, so can't say anything to that extent, but I did a bit of reading on stuff like that a while back, and I think they did mention the mac os x desktop was much better than windows. Anyways, I don't think there is really all that much you can do to make the desktop to much better at this point, I thought about making a 3d gui, but I couldn't think of any way that would actually make the users experience any better. Sure, it'd be cool to see 3d icons spinning around on the desktop, and windows collapsing, attached to a rotate able cube or similar, but really... what does it do for the user? It's no easier to use functionally, so all it's doing is wasting resources. Transparencies could help out a lot, being able to partially see through a window when I press a certain key for example, so I can see what is under it at any given time without having to move it. Possibly something to auto-arrange my windows for me, say I have 4 of them open, have it automatically put them into the 4 quadrants of the screen with each being 1/4 sized. 3 windows, no problem, 2 on one side, one on the other, with a nice way to rotate them through so the one I want is bigger and the other two smaller. Something like that would definitely be useful.

I have based my GUI on a game sys or Mobile phone, as in menu driven.
The desktop is moving into our living rooms and car etc.
So you should design your GUI to be less dependant on mouse use.
Also in gui term people do not like chose , as chose is fine for people who know about PC, but not for newbees. take a phone most people will learn fast how to use there phones, alot faster than people learn to navigate there PC's.

Please do not say phone are not as complicated as PC, as phone now are much more like PDA's

Interesting =)

However, related to the close button and the corner, I think the border just might be a feature, preventing a system stall (not a crash, just a delay) to capture mouse input but not output the pointer (ie. draw what's happening), so the user could accidentally close the app.

UI design is very complicated to get it right. It can't be minimalistic. It has to be functional and clean, while still offering power features in a simple yet non-bloat way. I definatly agree with Dex that dependancy from mouse must be reduced. Personally what most bothers me most is precision requirement. For example having to "manouver" your mouse to the exact location to place it or click, meaning a small divergence and the result isn't what you expected. Consider for example some DHTML menus, where when the mouse is on top, it covers another button, and you can't reach the button anymore. Or when your sliding through a menu and you leave it's focus area, closing it.

For me the perfect UI is the console. There's nothing better than typing what you want (or part of it and having tab-stoke automatically complete the command for you). Key controlled menus are also effective, when they aren't too large. But if I were to design a GUI today, it would be have various layers. The back layer would be the background (which IMO should be possible to be dynamic, like a screen-saver), next would be a tile arrangement of some big icons representing the most common used tasks, then a console which has text that is opaque when in use and semi-transparent when not, on top of a transparent canvas. Also the text should get slowly blurred/faded out after some time of non use (having a command to redraw everything). The icons below the console, when focused, slowly grows and goes above the console text, as if it were comming forward to better show the user. On the next layer, the corners would contain sliders, that show a semi-transparent icon briefly showing minimal info, and that when gain mouse focus, they slide to cover big part of screen and show more info. They could be task-bars, launch-menus, applets, media-player, monitors, whatever. On last layer, application windows, for lack of ideas =/

General ramblings... =)
Thnx for the replies,

JVFF