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Best Practices & Principles for GUI design
Looking for some examples of GUI apps with great design.
What would you say are the most important factors when programming a user interface? What makes it good, and what makes it great? Examples?
My top 5 list
Easy to use or if the need for complexity arises provides help in some status panel
Provides feedback on data errors - Preferably stops the user from making data errors
Clean layout doesn't look cluttered, has items aligned etc.
Doesn't cause the brain to stack overflow with a million fields.
Looks pretty and is pleasing on the eye, not retina burning cyan background.
I know it's kind of become a cliche, but:
The user must be able to navigate effortlessly in a manner that is both intuitive and requires no thought whatsoever.
It should be pretty, uncluttered and functional. Most important features should be right there to use.
A good example is Qt Creator IDE, which is an example of good gui app.