Comments on: GUI Programming is Hard http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2004/04/gui-programming-is-hard/ Sarah Allen's reflections on internet software and other topics Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:32:08 -0700 hourly 1 By: Eric Hancock http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2004/04/gui-programming-is-hard/comment-page-1/#comment-145 Eric Hancock Sun, 11 Apr 2004 02:12:54 +0000 http://www.ultrasaurus.com/wordpress/?p=115#comment-145 I think the most difficult thing about GUI design is that too many people confuse "I don't like it" with "it isn't useable." Well-designed GUI isn't always immediately evident. Often, good GUI is highly adapted to the task at hand. With GUI, <i>learnable</i> is often more important than <i>intuitive</i>. Of course, this depends entirely on the task at hand. I think the most difficult thing about GUI design is that too many people confuse “I don’t like it” with “it isn’t useable.” Well-designed GUI isn’t always immediately evident. Often, good GUI is highly adapted to the task at hand.

With GUI, learnable is often more important than intuitive.

Of course, this depends entirely on the task at hand.

]]> By: Victor Laszlo http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2004/04/gui-programming-is-hard/comment-page-1/#comment-144 Victor Laszlo Wed, 07 Apr 2004 16:35:12 +0000 http://www.ultrasaurus.com/wordpress/?p=115#comment-144 Interesting topic, and one I've been thinking about a lot lately as I've been working on a project for a customer, which is mostly a snazzy user interface for some fairly simple functionality. I think that the most difficult thing about GUI programming is that the 'correctness' of a GUI lies in the very minutiae of its details, but it's not always easy to identify which details are the ones that aren't right. In this way, GUI programming is a true art: you have to be able to step back from your work and look at it critically, and have to iterate quickly over alternatives. Interesting topic, and one I’ve been thinking about a lot lately as I’ve been working on a project for a customer, which is mostly a snazzy user interface for some fairly simple functionality.

I think that the most difficult thing about GUI programming is that the ‘correctness’ of a GUI lies in the very minutiae of its details, but it’s not always easy to identify which details are the ones that aren’t right. In this way, GUI programming is a true art: you have to be able to step back from your work and look at it critically, and have to iterate quickly over alternatives.

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