Some GUI

Devices GUI:

iPad: Aeroscout MobileView

Dedicated device: Wellsense

Web application:PanoramicPower

 

GUI thoughts

'When there is no right or wrong'

Rarely I come across GUI issues that I didn't see solution for it somewhere in any GUI work I have ever seen.

But what if I do? How to resolve it? Should I create a solution from scratch? Does 'Creating from Scratch' exists in our machine-human relations?

GUI Rules did not fall from the sky, it has always been here, all around us, in books, in instruments, in maps, in everything we touch, so how can it be? 

This is a very simple solution, but yet a complex one.

It all begins with the human mind, and the human concepts to life. 'Thoughts frames' - Paradigm, help us, the GUI designers, to connect to known knowledge in users minds, and communicate through it new ideas. For example -Who has never held a book and leafed through with one finger? use this common knowledge to create paging in smart phones. This is no new behavior it is just a translation to what we do almost every day in our life. 

Our 'Thoughts frames' has a Grid. To understand that all you need to do is to take a look outside your window, do you see a Grid to your visual life?

Sure you do, call it by its names, from big to small details. In big you can find the sky, in small you can find a straw, you can find a screw, you can find many things. Our life has a Grid, and if not could we fly? 

To associate fly to a visual, can you see a person flying in the sky? There is no escape from this grid, only when it is pure invisible energy then the grid becomes amorphous, still it has rules of behavior, and we have 'thought frames' to it. 

And one other little thing, we live in a Grid of our own: we are Human, we have a human body, head, hands, fingers, mouth, legs, eyes, ears, etc... so.. this is some thing we cannot escape from, at least not yet :-)

We are born into a Grid and 'thoughts frames', this is what this world gives us to work with.

If a GUI designer come across a new feature to communicate to users, and this is so new and hot technology, where should this designer begin to create the GUI solution for it?

Here are some answers and some Thumb rules:

1. Find the user 'Thought frame' that connects to the new idea you want to communicate.
2. Look for 'Thoughts Grid'.
3. Search for interface analogy.
4. Search for a day to day human behavior and activities that resembles the new technology, or belongs to the new technology field.
5. Lean on your findings to create a solution.

will it be a New solution, no it will not, it can be something that has never been done before, but it cannot be new, since there is evolution of things. Things are based on each-other, in layers. From top [spirit] to bottom [behavior] layers and layers of understandings, of common denominator, like a silk thread that go through times.

Even the newest most breaking ideas, can be based on things we already know. Otherwise no one will be able to grasp them. And if no one can grasp the idea, does it mean that the GUI is wrong? 

This is it- No its not. Its just doesn't communicate, or the time for it hasen't arived yet, or 

JUST TRY AGAIN.  

Update GuideStar Site

Again design an update for GuideStar website,
and also did it some time ago, so here it is...

Home page - http://www.guidestar.org.il/

you are invited to take a look and browse the pages.

Organization panel

Detail - search button - actual size

Detail - menu bar buttons Look & feel 

This site uses a nice typography Hebrew font face.

this is actually cool, to have - at last: more then just 3 web oriented fonts!!!

;-)

Icons

Its faster for the user to recognize graphic symbols then to interpret written text.
Icons by now become the easiest way to state common actions & places in applications, websites, devices and other areas.

Here are some of my icons.

Web site places & actions icons

Devices icons

Map Tools icons

Web Application icons

PC Desktop Icons

Website places

Fabric icons

Update Guidestar home

GuideStar home update: http://www.guidestar.org.il/

Update happens :-)
And its good, it make the site alive, it is a reason for visitors that already been in the site to revisit.
it can create all sort of new connections between the site and its target audience.
such as: News letter, emails, banners and it can even result in Target users taking action in the site.

but what is really new? from my point of view, as a graphic designer... I had to translate the buttons into 3 languages, Hebrew, English, and Arabic.
And it don't looks the same.
In Hebrew and English the site creates an atmosphere of 'New', but the Arabic font, looks like hand writing. 
Take a look:

GuideStar home in Arabic

How does it makes you feel?

Dashboard concept - Perspective

I'm driving in my life with the applications I need 24 hours a day.

Who came up with the concept of the dashboard?
I don't know.
but this concept is not new or old, this concept is here from the beginning of times...

The human being is going on his way with a bag containing all of the things he needs for his voyage.
In the beginning of times you needed tools such as a bow and an arrow, a water hobo, a knife, what else? mmm... a bag to collect things... fire stone?

I don't know, I can imagine :-)

So to have "order" in his journey the Humosfiaanc  created this bag with pockets, and put all of his stuff in it.
and the time pass...

more and more and more tools were collected during the time, to create small and big tasks, simple and complex work, so specifications where made to certain jobs, and a specific job had specific tools... etc... etc...

....we got back to these days:
can we call it the computerized times? I will, these days are computer driven.

And the physical tools we take to our voyage are communication tools, we communicate.
we have symbols, we have signs, we have languages, we have connections....
we connect by communication computerized devices.

We have tasks that are general and everyone does them, and we have specific applications to do specific tasks, so we need a bag, a bag to collect all of our tools, so, why don't we use a bag?

We do so many tasks simultaneously, and each task as a specific "bag" for its tools, so we need a bag to hold all the bags in, with pockets...
but the bag needs to be constantly open, so I can see my most important tools, since the job I do is compound from many tasks from many tools that lay in different bags.

like cars, where I can see the most important information about the motor and conditions of my vessel, like the dashboard, mmm... this is a good idea.

Use a dashboard such as in cars, after all, we are going on a journey...

GUI Look & Feel

This product was done for Orsus Company

This post begins with this image.
This image shows controls of a camera.
How it was planned, and how it was designed and placed as a tool inside the application.

Lets talk about Look & Feel.
What is Look & Feel?
When a media designer tells you- the "Look & Feel" of the product, what does the designer means?

Things are made of materials, any material.
Look around you and see; can you imagine your keyboard made of water? can you imagine your computer made of rock?
sure you can.
try, its easy...

If your computer looks like a stone, which age do you live in?

Prehistoric Computer

Look & Feel play a major part in users feelings towards the computer applications they use.
It can make the difference. Application can have the best performance but look old and out of date, and the users will not use it.

Look & Feel plays a part in users collaboration with the product.
Since most of computers working users, are doing their jobs for long hours, they should have a fun experience.

Here is another example:

This product was designed with collaboration with Shine studio

Look & Feel also shape applications in different markets.
All kinds of computerized markets emerge in the last 15-20 years, each market has its own way of approaching users, but all have some standards in common.
Standards is a subject for another post. :-)

Here is another example: This product was designed for AeroScout Mobile View Application

Before

After 1

After 2

Detail from application

Another detail

Look & Feel standards are set by the leading products in the filed, products we use every day.
Products such as operating systems, cellular devices, mail applications and more...

So in which market do you want to shape your product?

What's your Look & Feel today?