The Good, The Bad, The GUI.

[Shuguard]

GUI or graphic user interfaces are everywhere. No matter where you go you probably see a GUI. Now the problem I see is. What exactly makes a good GUI? Simple and easy? Detailed? colorful? responsive? What do you ladies and gents think? Please don't forget to show some example of GUIs be it games or electronics.

 

[tippy2k2]

Oh that's an easy one!

If I sat in front of it, knowing absolutely nothing about the program that you are having me use, could I figure out how to work it?

If yes, good GUI
If no, bad GUI

 

[Heronblade]

Oh that's an easy one!

If I sat in front of it, knowing absolutely nothing about the program that you are having me use, could I figure out how to work it?

If yes, good GUI
If no, bad GUI

That's a fine standard for programs with a simple function like word processing. Get much beyond that though and it becomes unreasonable. For instance, I'm working with a solid modeling program that I find to be quite intuitive and simple to learn, but people that do not have a background in some kind of design, whether engineering, architectural, or something else, are likely to be quite lost.

How about we say that a good GUI is one that minimizes whatever learning curve happens to be there for the program's function.

 

[Moderated]

Customizable so you can make it look however you want.
I usually make it small, simple, and black.

 

[tippy2k2]

That's a fine standard for programs with a simple function like word processing. Get much beyond that though and it becomes unreasonable. For instance, I'm working with a solid modeling program that I find to be quite intuitive and simple to learn, but people that do not have a background in some kind of design, whether engineering, architectural, or something else, are likely to be quite lost.

How about we say that a good GUI is one that minimizes whatever learning curve happens to be there for the program's function.

I was trying to figure out a way to include that but I was hoping it would have been obvious

If I'm creating a banking software, a good GUI would allow a banker to use it to use it with minimal training. I certainly don't expect a programmer to create a complicated banking software that would let someone who knows nothing about banking to use it.

 

[UnusualStranger]

Well, for a GUI to be good, you have to start out as stated before. It needs to be simple enough that you can toss someone in front of it, and they can figure it out. The difficult part is finding out how to make it also attractive to those who like the deeper technical details.

Lets take, for example, Paint. Paint is a good GUI, because it shows you all the things most ordinary people would use when going into Paint. The basic colors, brushes, buckets, and an eraser, as well as the Main Menu which you can go to and just go "NEW".

However, the real trick is when you get an expert in paint. Who knows how to get particular shadings down, the line thickness, the zoom shortcuts, the different tools, Selecting different parts, knowing keyboard shortcuts for making quick undos and redos, being able to quickly grab different shapes and fill them or empty them as necessary.

A good GUI needs to be absolutely simple in its initial form. But it also needs to have a much deeper interface hidden within, that a basic user won't see much of or need, while the advanced user can find and know what to do with.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

The most important part of a GUI is efficiency. This includes being able to access all functions easily, minimizing amount of clicks required for all functions, especially commonly used and important ones (like saving), and designing the layout so that thing you're actually working with (such as the document in a word processor) gets as much space as possible. Having menus that can be easily minimized and toolbars that can be enabled and disabled easily are good ways of accomplishing this.

After that comes accessibility. Yes, it's important, but only important the first time you're learning to do something in the program. Being a little easier to learn doesn't help you nearly as much after you've been using a program for a hundred hours, while being efficient does.

Now, these things are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and a good interface designer should strive for both. But, in the long run, efficiency always trumps being easy to learn.

 

[mad825]

The GUI is part of the HCI model.

How you may interact with the device will determine how the GUI (or in some cases WIMPs) are designed. Take Windows 8 for an example, they are pandering towards the tablet/mobile device therefore they've designed primarily their GUI around touch screen as opposed to mouse pointers and keyboard commands by cutting and removing features so that familiarity is a "dumbed down" process. Whatever device you go with with Win 8, it will all be the same.

The amount of information that is shown is also down to how you interact with the device as well the type of audience. Compare the Iphone with the android.

As for colour, it's down to visibility and previously known knowledge such as the colour red meaning "bad","angry", "negative" and "stop".

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Good. SkyUI.

Bad: Skyrim default GUI.

 

[Vault101]

I hate the feeling of lack of controll

like the new windows movie maker...Its been years since I used it and I know it was always pretty basic..BUT GOD its simplified and dumbed down so much I actually find it harder to use/work out how to use

also windows 8 looks awful :/

 

[thesilentman]

For me, a good GUI is one I shouldn't notice unless I want to. One factor for a good GUI includes good space management because (for me, at least) if something takes up too much space on a screen with no workaround, it becomes annoying as fuck. Exhibit 1: Windows 8 Metro UI. Those goddamn tiles; who the hell needs tiles[footnote]Shrinking the tiles makes it as big as a sticky note. On a nice PC monitor. NOT HELPFUL AT ALL, MICROSOFT.[/footnote]? That is what put me off Windows 8 the desktop OS, but attracted me to the Surface. A good example of space management would be the Xfce desktop for Linux. It's minimalist to an insane degree that doesn't take up unnecessary space (and a low memory footprint to boot), but still allows you to customize for anyone else that may need to use their computer.

Good. SkyUI.

Bad: Skyrim default GUI.

That brings me to my next point: usability. A good GUI has novices having a blast learning the interface while the experts blaze through with a high level of efficiency; ergo, how well the user is able to use the program/play the game. A bad example would be Skyrim as the menu is not at all helpful for hardcore PC gamers who sit 3 feet away from their monitor (er, hi?). A good example would be SkyUI, like Heavy said. vanilla!Skyrim has an interface designed for the consoles, as it is simple for navigating at a distance. SkyUI, is good for navigating at a closer distance and still has a compact interface, hence marrying my point about space management here.

Good examples of space management include the Xfce desktop for Linux, Windows itself (the Desktop), and the Steam interface. For a game interface, I'll go with TF2 and DX: HR's interfaces.

Edits for grammar and clarity

 

[Folji]

Good interface design is surprisingly hard to notice if you don't think about whether it's good or bad, you know? If it's good, has a look that fits what it's for and is intuitive to use then you don't really need to think about it. It just works. But if it's bad, if it doesn't look the part or if you have to analyse it to figure out how to use it, you just notice those flaws right away. You can't under-design the interface and leave it unintuitive for the user, but you also can't over-design it and leave it screaming in the user's face!

 

[OvBr]

A good GUI interface should be able to track an IP address. It really only works if it's made with visual basic, though.

 

[BarbaricGoose]

I'll create a snip using visual basic to keep in check the moderator aggression levels

Fucking dammit! I was just gonna make that reference! Beaten by 1 post...

Well, I like a minimal UI. I don't like an overwhelming amount of information. I like to see just what I need to play the game effectively. My health, my other resource (because there's always another resource), and... I'm gonna say... chairs?

 

[KissmahArceus]

A good GUI for me is fast and reponsive, clean and clutter free and with a design that suits the world or style of the game.

My opinions

Good GUIs: Halo (series as a whole), Skyrim, Mass Effect, Ninja Gaiden 1 & 2, Geometry Wars 2.

I didn't like KOA: Reckoning's GUI because it was fuck ugly

 

[Necabo]

A good GUI interface should be able to track an IP address. It really only works if it's made with visual basic, though.

wow, that was just stringing together things which have to do with programming and hardly anything to do with IP-tracking. Though a nice GUI would help in making the tracking look nice

 

[Benni88]

I like UIs which fade away when not in use. I'm a big fan of using all available monitor space and I've found in immersion heavy games, reduced opacity or invisible HUDs really aid the player's connection to the game.

I've always figured that most good GUIs come down to good graphics design.

 

[blackrave]

Good GUI is efficient and with good customization options

Good. SkyUI.

Bad: Skyrim default GUI.

Not even that
Good GUI- TES3 (yes I consider it a pretty good example- despite the fact that inventory filters were limited)

Bad GUI- Still TES5 default GUI

 

[Evil Smurf]

a good GUI is simple to use, less clicks to get to where you want, this is why I use a Mac