

Ask HN: When are GUIs important? - dunstad

As a consumer of software, everything I use is GUI-oriented; however, as a newbie programmer, all the emphasis in my reading is on the functionality of the program. When are GUIs important?
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slindstr
It all depends on who's using your software. I work on both the front and back
end sides of a product at work. Generally if there is bug it's pretty easy for
most to determine if it's the front or back end that messed up, and yet the
customer blames EVERYTHING on the front end. It's not their fault either -
they just aren't aware of our architecture, and probably never stopped to
think about it, nor should they have to.

Keeping this in mind, you need to have a reliable back end, and a functional,
presentable front end. The GUI doesn't have to be anything spectacular, just
well organized so things make sense. Take this website for example - nothing
fancy about this GUI. However, do spend some time making it organized and easy
to use since that's what everyone will see. Worst case scenario, hire a
designer from a local community college or elance.

Here's some general tips to make your GUI more presentable: 1\. Form fields
should line up, and generally they should be the same size. Don't have some
indented and others not. 2\. Try to keep your forms balanced across the
page/screen. Scrolling down forever sucks, so distribute placement evenly.
Similarly, horizontal scrolling also sucks so avoid that as well. 3\. Try to
keep user inputs to a minimum. People are lazy. 4\. Use colors that work
together. When in doubt, leave it black and white. Check out
<http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html> 5\. Use colors as indicators. Green
= success, red = failure 6\. Be consistent.

If you want to read an awesome book about designing GUIs try Smashing
Magazine's book: www.smashingbook.com

~~~
slindstr
Wow apologies for the horrible formatting. Another lesson learned the hard
way.

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grayrest
The emphasis on functionality reflects the nature of the job. Software is
generally like an iceberg in terms of time and complexity. The part you see is
supported by a much larger chunk that's generally invisible. When you're
starting out, it makes sense to focus on the larger, supporting part.

How important a GUI is depends on the nature of the program. A significant
chunk of the world's businesses depend on apps that have no GUI while more or
less everything consumer-facing has a GUI.

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mikecane
Functionality is what the program does. The GUI is what helps the user exploit
that functionality in the least number of steps and with clear prompting.

See this for an example of UI/UX importance:
[http://ipadtest.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/when-will-lenovo-
an...](http://ipadtest.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/when-will-lenovo-and-asus-
learn/)

