Re: Application UI's
I just ran into this this morning. Very nice icon sets. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/06/35-really-incredible-free-icon-sets/ On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 4:25 PM, Mike Little [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: hi guys, just about to start a business to business web application for a client. this sits on the backend of their website. uptil now i have to say my backend application designs are very brrriinnnggg very simple icons with dull backgrounds. just wondered if anyone had come across some inspirational websites (or books) that may help to give me some design motivation? mike ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300731 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
Re: Application UI's
Yahoo Design Patterns: http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/ Silk Icons: http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/ On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 4:25 PM, Mike Little [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: hi guys, just about to start a business to business web application for a client. this sits on the backend of their website. uptil now i have to say my backend application designs are very brrriinnnggg very simple icons with dull backgrounds. just wondered if anyone had come across some inspirational websites (or books) that may help to give me some design motivation? mike ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300681 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
Re: Application UI's
these icons are very cool - thanks for that. Yahoo Design Patterns: http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/ Silk Icons: http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/ On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 4:25 PM, Mike Little [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300689 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
Re: Application UI's
Eye candy of the highest order. Some of these sites are simply gorgeous: http://cssvault.com/ Some Open source web designs (See familiar designs?) http://www.oswd.org http://www.opendesigns.org/view-designs/ On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 4:25 PM, Mike Little [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: hi guys, just about to start a business to business web application for a client. this sits on the backend of their website. uptil now i have to say my backend application designs are very brrriinnnggg very simple icons with dull backgrounds. just wondered if anyone had come across some inspirational websites (or books) that may help to give me some design motivation? mike ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300691 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
Re: Application UI's
http://cssremix.com is a favorite of mine. However, in my opinion, although a backend can look nice, at the end of the day it should be about getting the job done, so avoid using lots of graphics and other eye candy that can get in the way. People don't necessarily remember something that's well designed, but they will remember something that isn't. Ryan Mike Little wrote: hi guys, just about to start a business to business web application for a client. this sits on the backend of their website. uptil now i have to say my backend application designs are very brrriinnnggg very simple icons with dull backgrounds. just wondered if anyone had come across some inspirational websites (or books) that may help to give me some design motivation? mike ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300695 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
Re: Application UI's
heh, I'd look at it another way: you don't need icons, you need an interface designer to spend a couple of hours making it look good. My graphics guy goes through all my admin back ends and spends a couple of hours messing with the css, placing the buttons and adding icons, and making interface suggestions. The ones that he's done look and feel about 1000% better than anything I could do - and I'm pretty handy with css. -- Kay Smoljak business: www.cleverstarfish.com coldfusion: kay.smoljak.com personal: goatlady.wordpress.com On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 7:53 AM, Ryan J. Heldt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://cssremix.com is a favorite of mine. However, in my opinion, although a backend can look nice, at the end of the day it should be about getting the job done, so avoid using lots of graphics and other eye candy that can get in the way. People don't necessarily remember something that's well designed, but they will remember something that isn't. Ryan Mike Little wrote: hi guys, just about to start a business to business web application for a client. this sits on the backend of their website. uptil now i have to say my backend application designs are very brrriinnnggg very simple icons with dull backgrounds. just wondered if anyone had come across some inspirational websites (or books) that may help to give me some design motivation? mike ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300698 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
Re: Application UI's
i understand what you are saying. just want to spruce up my applications a bit (these are not related to the frontend design by the way - which are superb haha). mike http://cssremix.com is a favorite of mine. However, in my opinion, although a backend can look nice, at the end of the day it should be about getting the job done, so avoid using lots of graphics and other eye candy that can get in the way. People don't necessarily remember something that's well designed, but they will remember something that isn't. Ryan Mike Little wrote: ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300699 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Application UI's
-Original Message- From: Ryan J. Heldt [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 5:54 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Application UI's http://cssremix.com is a favorite of mine. However, in my opinion, although a backend can look nice, at the end of the day it should be about getting the job done, so avoid using lots of graphics and other eye candy that can get in the way. People don't necessarily remember something that's well designed, but they will remember something that isn't. Exactly - simple elegance generally always wins out over complexity. I would suggest: +) Keep it simple. Seriously consider when you should use graphics (words are better than icons in many cases) and fancy layouts (broad, simple layouts are better than complex, cramped layout in most cases). Whenever you're going to add something ask the question: do I need this? Keep your resource count LOW. Two, maybe three, fonts are all anybody needs. Choose a small number of signature colors that work together. Build basic assets (bullets, headers, etc) and use them over and over. Animation should be subtle - people pick up on more than you think and a common mistake is to beat them over the head with change. Edward Tufte talks about Chart junk - extraneous lines, elements, graphics, etc - which detracts from understanding. The same is true for applications. Any visual element that doesn't have a well-defined job should be dropped. +) Don't exceed your skills. You can lift all the professional icons and canned designs you like but they will ultimately have a strong tendency to fail when put together with other pieces you'll need to design yourself. If you can only do stick figures... then do stick figures. If you're design sense is stretched by a left nav bar and a content area... then do that. +) Be consistent. In color scheme, wording, grammar (address) and so forth. Most bad websites are bad primarily due to inconsistency. Determine (and enforce!) basic rules and variations in content and behavior (for example bold items are active or all task links are on the left navigation). +) Usability ALWAYS wins out over design. Don't use cramped, tiny text size because it looks better - it doesn't and it's difficult to use. Don't use complex graphics which blend into the background for buttons... use buttons. If you're looking for a GREAT, easy to read book on these principles you can't go wrong with Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think!. The Invisible Computer by Donald Norman is also amazingly good... neither talk specifically about design, but rather about what kind of designs are easiest to understand. And easy is more important than pretty every time. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300701 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Application UI's
Who's your graphics guy? Care to share? -Original Message- From: Kay Smoljak [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 6:40 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Application UI's heh, I'd look at it another way: you don't need icons, you need an interface designer to spend a couple of hours making it look good. My graphics guy goes through all my admin back ends and spends a couple of hours messing with the css, placing the buttons and adding icons, and making interface suggestions. The ones that he's done look and feel about 1000% better than anything I could do - and I'm pretty handy with css. -- Kay Smoljak business: www.cleverstarfish.com coldfusion: kay.smoljak.com personal: goatlady.wordpress.com On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 7:53 AM, Ryan J. Heldt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://cssremix.com is a favorite of mine. However, in my opinion, although a backend can look nice, at the end of the day it should be about getting the job done, so avoid using lots of graphics and other eye candy that can get in the way. People don't necessarily remember something that's well designed, but they will remember something that isn't. Ryan Mike Little wrote: hi guys, just about to start a business to business web application for a client. this sits on the backend of their website. uptil now i have to say my backend application designs are very brrriinnnggg very simple icons with dull backgrounds. just wondered if anyone had come across some inspirational websites (or books) that may help to give me some design motivation? mike ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300702 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
Re: Application UI's
On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 10:19 AM, Mark Fuqua [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Who's your graphics guy? Care to share? Eh, he's a Clever Starfish employee. But you're welcome to request a quote :D -- Kay Smoljak business: www.cleverstarfish.com standards: kay.zombiecoder.com coldfusion: kay.smoljak.com personal: goatlady.wordpress.com ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300706 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
