How do you make your applications looking more sexy?

Posted by Roflcoptr on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Roflcoptr
Published on 2011-02-10T10:26:36Z Indexed on 2011/02/10 15:33 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 266

Filed under:

advice

|

gui

|

Creativity

|

ui

The other title of this question could also be: How to improve my creativeness?

During the past years I noticed that a loot of my small applications that I write in my free time to ease my life could also be useful for some of my friends. They asked me to get them a copy. Even if the applications are working as they should I feel a little bit embarrassed because they GUIs are all looking really ugly.

The problem is, I always used standard and default-looking Buttons, TextBoxes etc. Now I thought about how to improve this. And yes I know it is possible to use themes, ImageButtons, ColorBrushes and so on. And now the real problem is:

I can't really see which colors fit together and make a good design. Are there any techniques, books, other resources that help to improve to get a feeling for good designs, color combinations, UI element choose?

© Programmers or respective owner

Related posts about advice

SEO Advice - Where You Should Start When Looking For Advice on SEO

as seen on Ezine Articles - Search for 'Ezine Articles'
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is one of the key components of learning how to market on the internet. If you have been around for any length of time I'm sure you've heard of SEO. Well today I'm going to give you my opinion on where you should go to get your advice on SEO. >>> More
Apache Bug Prompts Update Advice

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
IT security firm Sense of Security has demonstrated how a vulnerability in older versions of the Web server could giver hackers control over databases. >>> More
What is the Oracle Utilities Application Framework?

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
The Oracle Utilities Application Framework is a reusable, scalable and flexible java based framework which allows other products to be built, configured and implemented in a standard way. Note: Even though the Framework is built in java it can be integrated with COBOL based extensions for backward… >>> More
I want to construct web page for my department, I want your advice

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I want to help freshmen , so I will construct web page for them . In that webpage , I will have some topic ; While installing ubuntu what you should consider ? ( ex : are there any driver-confliction ? ) [ So freshman do not know how to install ubuntu, or they think everything is completed when… >>> More
Framework 4 Features: Summary of Security enhancements

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
In the last log entry I mentioned one of the new security features in Oracle Utilities Application Framework 4.0.1. Security is one of the major "tent poles" (to borrow a phrase from Steve Jobs) in this release of the framework. There are a number of security related enhancements requested by customers… >>> More

Related posts about gui

How to ignore GUI as much as possible without rendering APP less GUI developer friendly

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
The substance of an app is more important to me than its apperance, yet GUI always seems to dominate a disproportionate percentage of programmer time, development and target resource requirements/constraints. Ideally I'd like an application architecture that will permit me to develop an app using… >>> More
Qt Linking Error.

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, I configure qt-x11 with following options ./configure -prefix /iTalk/qtx11 -prefix-install -bindir /iTalk/qtx11-install/bin -libdir /iTalk/qtx11-install/lib -docdir /iTalk/qtx11-install/doc -headerdir /iTalk/qtx11-install/include -datadir /iTalk/qtx11-install/data -examplesdir /iTalk/qtx11-install/examples… >>> More
GUI and non gui difference

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
hi guys as i know we have gui and non gui application today. but remember back in the old days there were many application thats kinda like half gui half not . the applications are text based and it has no GUI like what we have now if we were to use java swing library or etc. but you could pretty… >>> More
Looking for some good GUI testing frameworks/gui automation test tools for Windows Forms .NET

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello, I am looking for a good GUI testing framework/automation testing tool for windows forms based apps. Can you recommend any ? >>> More
Code a timer in a GUI python TKinter

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I need to code a program with GUI in python (I'm thinking of using TKinter, 'cause it's easy, but I'm open to suggestions). My major problem is that I don't know how to code a timer (like a clock... like 00:00:00,00 hh:mm:ss,00 ) I need it to update it self (that's what I don't know how to do) Another… >>> More