Making pretty front panels?

[wiebe@CARYA]

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@RTSLVU wrote:

My skinning engine suggestion is still open, but I guess we have more artists here than I expected as nobody seems interested.

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Time to change that to "implemented in NXG"? (Not actually sure it is, but it seems pretty close.)

[Hooovahh]

I wouldn't call it implemented in NXG.  I haven't used the latest release, but last I knew you couldn't do things like apply a style to all UI elements at once, or change the style on the fly.  You did get to choose from I think 8 different styles for things like buttons which sure a developer could change all their controls to use the same one and then there is a cohesive style.  Current LabVIEW has different control styles too but changing between them is difficult.

I somewhat enjoy making a good UI and UX.  It's one of those things that takes time, and plenty of brainstorming and trial and error to see what works well for the user.  I wouldn't call making good looking UIs in LabVIEW fun, but I do enjoy it when I can sit back and see software that doesn't look like LabVIEW, but has the same user interaction you might see in a browser, or word processor, or email client.  I think maybe part of the issue might be that because LabVIEW does the first 90% of a UI with 10% of the effort, it is hard to plan out taking another 90% of the time just to get the last 10% completed.

[paul.r]

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@Hooovahh wrote:

I somewhat enjoy making a good UI and UX.  It's one of those things that takes time, and plenty of brainstorming and trial and error to see what works well for the user.  I wouldn't call making good looking UIs in LabVIEW fun, but I do enjoy it when I can sit back and see software that doesn't look like LabVIEW, but has the same user interaction you might see in a browser, or word processor, or email client.  I think maybe part of the issue might be that because LabVIEW does the first 90% of a UI with 10% of the effort, it is hard to plan out taking another 90% of the time just to get the last 10% completed.

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Agreed. I make, and work with others that make UIs that you would never guess are LabVIEW. Just like anything else, its a skill that takes time to develop.  Creating 'skinnable' UIs in LabVIEW is also possible, if design your UI code with this in mind, and you completely decouple your UI from your application's business logic.

The link below has lots of good UI guidelines - a lot of them are specific to apps that you would use on a phone, but there is still a lot of great information there. 

https://material.io/design/guidelines-overview/

[RTSLVU]

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@paul.r wrote:

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@Hooovahh

The link below has lots of good UI guidelines - a lot of them are specific to apps that you would use on a phone, but there is still a lot of great information there. 

https://material.io/design/guidelines-overview/

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Making a usable UI is not my issue, making a UI that does not look like Hotdog Stand is.

[paul.r]

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@RTSLVU wrote:

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@paul.r wrote:

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@Hooovahh

The link below has lots of good UI guidelines - a lot of them are specific to apps that you would use on a phone, but there is still a lot of great information there. 

https://material.io/design/guidelines-overview/

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Making a usable UI is not my issue, making a UI that does not look like Hotdog Stand is my issue.

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Okay.. Did you explore the guidelines? It gives lots of great advice regarding color schemes. And, I would argue that color affects usability. (Which is also discussed in the guidelines)