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Article:
  Creating Easy-to-Deploy Unix Applications for OS X
Subject:   From deployment engineering to GUI design...
Date:   2003-10-26 15:00:49
From:   anonymous2
Response to: From deployment engineering to GUI design...

Mark,


I have a theory why you never get complaints; your customers are all Unix users too ;-) But seriously, if this panel is the only interface of your program (i.e. no menu bar) you could leave the icon out, and the title would even be o.k (but not great...). But the font size is really too small, and the alignment of the buttons is a clear give-away.


What if you would combine the start and stop buttons into one button with alternating title, like in the 'sharing' panel of system preferences? It may seem like nitpicking, but in my view this is really what Macintosh is all about: usability and paying attention to details.


Patrick
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Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.

  • From deployment engineering to GUI design...
    2003-10-29 05:18:00  shryn [Reply | View]

    Patrick,

    As a long time Mac user, who has just started to delve into the mysteries of UNIX , I chose to recommend to my school board ProjectForum over the free, but complex to install and run OpenSource solutions. As much as I enjoy learning PHP, mysql and other UNIX based software, I usually don't have the time to download, install and configure all the different packages.

    ProjectForum's server interface is, as stated, just something to fire up and have in the background, out of sight. Where PF shines, is in the front-end user interface, which as it is dependent on a browser, doesn't have to adhere to Apple's interface guidelines.

    So I must agree with Mark's article and hope that more developers port UNIX software solutions to the Mac with easy to install and configure packages.

    Stephen Hryncewicz
  • From deployment engineering to GUI design...
    2003-10-27 03:15:03  roseman [Reply | View]

    Far more Mac (and Windows) customers than Linux or FreeBSD, as one would expect (it's not a port of a Unix app, but was built cross-platform from the ground up). Again, very much appreciate your suggestions for improving the UI.