(Finished) Your best UI design - contest

[lainz]

Hi, please share your best UI design made with FPC.

You can use any UI controls, made by you or third party.

Hope this thread get full of cool UI.

The limit is December 31. And we can vote the winners in 2025. Vote now!

I'm organizing this so I will be not participating.

Existing apps are not welcome, you must create something for the contest.

The app can be for a platform only or multiplatform.

Any more ideas about the rules can be discussed here.

Thanks.


Ok. We can have 2 categories. One. For existing projects and one for the Todo list.

One where you can show your best project. Only look will be voted because you do not have to share the source. Just share some screenshots.

And the Todo list that must include sources to compile and test.

Better now?

We have a lot of time to work in our Todo list or improve our existing project.

All projects can participate even if they are closed source or open source. But screenshot is mandatory else we can't decide.

All right I think all is good so we can start the contest.

[440bx]

I think that's a good idea however, what is best often depends on the purpose.  In this case the purpose of the application.

Here is an example.  Back in the days of MS-DOS I tried a number of editors, among them Multi-Edit.  I chose Multi-Edit for a number of reasons but, one critical reason was that when a shift/control/alt key combination was started (either by pressing shift, control or alt) the editor would show a reverse-highlighted set of squares (8, one for each function key at the time) showing what shift-F1, shift-F2, ... shift-F8 did, the same for Ctrl and Alt. 

That single UI feature greatly increased productivity while learning the editor.

Unfortunately, they got rid of that feature in the Windows version and, because of that, I occasionally have to look in the menus to remember what key combination is assigned to a particular feature (usually one that I only use rarely.)

I suggest that those who decide to enter your contest should specify what the purpose of the app is and, their U.I be evaluated in that context which means there could be more than one winner.

[KodeZwerg]

How is this contest held, are we supposed to make screenshots of GUI designs we've made?

[domasz]

Existing apps are not welcome

We have like 5 people active on the forum. The rule above might discourage some of them. Perhaps this rule should be out?

[Joanna from IRC]

I’m not sure what constitutes good ui design? There are probably many different conflicting opinions about this. I know that things I consider important are considered unnecessary/unpleasant by other programmers.

[lainz]

How is this contest held, are we supposed to make screenshots of GUI designs we've made?

Yes or share the sources, both better.

Existing apps are not welcome

We have like 5 people active on the forum. The rule above might discourage some of them. Perhaps this rule should be out?

We have almost an entire year to make something for the contest.

I’m not sure what constitutes good ui design? There are probably many different conflicting opinions about this. I know that things I consider important are considered unnecessary/unpleasant by other programmers.

Well there should be principles, I'm not an expert but usability, readability, modern look and feel, easy of use...

[korba812]

I’m not sure what constitutes good ui design? There are probably many different conflicting opinions about this. I know that things I consider important are considered unnecessary/unpleasant by other programmers.

Well there should be principles, I'm not an expert but usability, readability, modern look and feel, easy of use...

At least three of the criteria listed above cannot be verified from a screenshot. Moreover, it seems that these three criteria can only be evaluated by users of a particular type of software, e.g. graphic designers should evaluate graphics programs, accountants should evaluate accounting programs, programmers evaluate development environments, etc....

[lainz]

I’m not sure what constitutes good ui design? There are probably many different conflicting opinions about this. I know that things I consider important are considered unnecessary/unpleasant by other programmers.

Well there should be principles, I'm not an expert but usability, readability, modern look and feel, easy of use...

At least three of the criteria listed above cannot be verified from a screenshot. Moreover, it seems that these three criteria can only be evaluated by users of a particular type of software, e.g. graphic designers should evaluate graphics programs, accountants should evaluate accounting programs, programmers evaluate development environments, etc....

Programmers can evaluate anything, since it's our job. We're testers as well, and debuggers of software.

So a requisite can be share the sources and steps to compile.

[Joanna from IRC]

Well there should be principles, I'm not an expert but usability, readability, modern look and feel, easy of use...

I’m not sure what modern look and feel is but I have noticed a trend towards users having less and less control over what software does and a lot of wasted space that forces users to scroll. My idea of perfect ui is a lot closer to hexchat than discord.

[VisualLab]

I’m not sure what constitutes good ui design? There are probably many different conflicting opinions about this. I know that things I consider important are considered unnecessary/unpleasant by other programmers.

Well there should be principles, I'm not an expert but usability, readability, modern look and feel, easy of use...

At least three of the criteria listed above cannot be verified from a screenshot. Moreover, it seems that these three criteria can only be evaluated by users of a particular type of software, e.g. graphic designers should evaluate graphics programs, accountants should evaluate accounting programs, programmers evaluate development environments, etc....

Programmers can evaluate anything, since it's our job. We're testers as well, and debuggers of software.

So a requisite can be share the sources and steps to compile.

As for the evaluation of the software by programmers - I have doubts here. There are outstanding programmers like Linus Torvalds and Lennart Poettering (or at least that's how they are described in the media). At the opposite extreme, there are programmers such as Joel Spolsky or Eric Raymond, who evaluate software based on its usability (Joel in particular is a proponent of this approach). Years of using software created by the first ones (LT, LP) give me the impression that it is created on the principle: "it's supposed to be this way, because that's how I want it - if you don't like it, f... o..." I am definitely on the side of the latter (i.e. JS, ER). Unfortunately, usability and ergonomics in IT have been not only neglected but even combated for many years.

Joanna rightly pointed out that there should be certain criteria. Lainz's examples of criteria are fine, but a bit too vague and incomplete. This may later result in disputes in the outcome of the competition. The suggestions given by Korb812 also seem correct to me. For example: if someone creates a chemical structure editor, an accountant or graphic designer is unlikely to evaluate it objectively, if only because they do not need such programs (and generally such people do not have the knowledge to evaluate this type of software). And vice versa: a chemist is unlikely to be able to objectively evaluate a good program for the financial management of an enterprise. I am leaving out rare cases of people with extensive competences.

[lainz]

Understand.
maybe we can define the app to be the same for all.

Like a Todo list for the basic app and a small file Explorer for the difficult app.

Or tell your app ideas as well 

[440bx]

part of the problem is how is "best UI design" determined ?

Some considerations could be a.) visual appeal b.) intuitiveness c.) motion economy e.g, no ctrl-alt-shift right click to delete one character at the cursor d.) use of space (IMO, current interfaces waste way too much space, I long for the days of ms-dos where space economy was given a lot of importance.  e.) likely many other things that are likely obvious to some people but not to me.

It is important to be able to _measure_ with some degree of accuracy how desirable a U.I feature is and, account for poorly implemented features that may be deal breakers (you may launch Saturn V but, if it misses the moon because the controls are hard to use, that would be a bit of a problem.)

[d7_2_laz]

I don’t know where the increasing number of pros, contras and concerns about criteria might end.

But would like to give a simple thing to consider. It might be very well of interest for “normal one” users not quite skilled in elaborated artist sciences to see how others are doing things. What’s behind of questions or issues they raised, what they were good for. How things may look like that others did.
Not for to win contests, but to get ideas, be inspired  and widen imagination of possible designs.
Admittedly that might be a somehow different thread though.

Lainz, basically i'd like your last proposal. But if there are already existing products and the source cannot/won’t be published for diverse reasons … unlucky, no chance. Those won't reach here.

[lainz]

Well the thing is as well that we're all humans, so all is relative to us. Each individual is so different that will measure differently.

So I think we need to create new content because is a contest, no old projects with years of development, because that's unfair with the others.

A ToDo list will do, you can use databases, arrays, json, objects, lists, anything for the backend. That will not be the main discussion here.

The thing is the UI, again, show us a compilable project, source code required. Each user can test all the projects and vote, and say why he/she chooses that project. If because the keyboard shortcut is nice, if because it uses material design, if because it uses native controls, if because it's minimalist, if because it uses fancy gradients and so on. No one can tell why you choose that app. Is not a decision by some, but all the users that want to take the time to build and test all the apps.

Mabe we get 10 apps with too much luck.

[Joanna from IRC]

Years of using software created by the first ones (LT, LP) give me the impression that it is created on the principle: "it's supposed to be this way, because that's how I want it - if you don't like it, f... o..."

I would think that all programmers who aren’t being told what to do by employers would be in the “that’s how I want it” category. My approach to programming ui is pretty much what makes the program easier for ME to use. I once had my project tested by some other people though. One of the testers told me that my highlights for some numerical values was annoying.. so I ended up adding code to allow turning off what I considered to be a valuable feature.