taking the Swing UI to next level?

Question

i have designed an application using java swing, how to improve the look and feel and User interface?

Answer 1

Perhaps change the look and feel to something more "native": http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/lookandfeel/plaf.html

Answer 2

While the question is very vague....I'll provide an obvious quick tip.

Make sure to handle events and/or heavy processing on a background thread. SwingWorker is now included in the Java 6 JRE/JDK

SwingWorker<Void, Void> worker = new SwingWorker<Void, Void>() {


            @Override
            protected Void doInBackground() throws Exception {
            //some task

                return null;
            }

            @Override
            protected void done() {
           //when done
           }


        };

        threadPool.submit(worker);

Answer 3

It depends upon your objective.

• If you want to go in the desktop way, maybe by using some of Kirill Grouchnikov works : Substance LnF and Flamingo (which emulates the Office ribbon using Swing code)
• If you want to go in the pimp'd direction, take a look at old works of Chet Haase and Romain Guy