Archive for the 'GUI design' Category

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

Snapact Photo Manager 1.1 is Released!

After a few weeks of gathering input and putting our noses to the grindstone, we are happy to announce the release of the Snapact Photo Manager 1.1.  It includes a number of bug fixes, and a few select features as recommended by our feedback crew - you, the users!

Thank you so much for all of your input, positive and ‘constructive’.  It has helped immensely.  I will put together another posting in the morning with details of what’s new in this 1.1 release… for now, I must sleep.

Saturday, October 11th, 2008

Upcoming Snapact Photo Manager Update

We’ve analyzed the workflow of the Snapact Photo Manager 1.0 based on user feedback (thank you, everyone!) and have decided to make some changes to make using the product easier in a general sense, but with a focus on introducing album/organizing features to you culminating with the photo sharing experience that we’ve delivered.

We intend to make album creation, populating albums with photos and the simple synchronization process the focal points of our changes, but you will see other minor improvements as well. When the update is actually released, you can do one of two things: open the Snapact Photo Manager on your computer - it will tell you that an update is available.  The updating process is simple.  Otherwise, you can dowload the Snapact Photo Manager again (or for the first time!) - our download location will never change and will always have the latest version.

We promised many blog postings ago that we’re always interested in your feedback.  This hasn’t changed, and never will.  Most of our feedback so far has been via email from the people that we’ve directly introduced to Snapact (friends/family, friends of friends/family), but we do get input from the Snapact Contact form (currently available for logged in users only; this will be changing) occasionally.  We really hope to start getting GetSatisfaction.com related feedback - but then again,we understand that typical GetSatisfaction usage is based on complaints and issues that users have that aren’t being addressed by the company.  We don’t want to be that company!

So, be suitably excited for the upcoming release of the Snapact Photo Manager - it should make a few things easier.  We’re excited!

Saturday, November 3rd, 2007

Pink is the new black

The trend in GUI’s these days is black. From Microsoft to Apple, black is the new king. It wasn’t long ago that GUI design standards dictated that you should have a consistent look and feel to the operating system that surrounds you, but now it seems that the fancier an application, the better. Previously, applications relied on users’ system colors for everything; now the field is wide open.

Solid colors are also out. At minimum, controls need to have gradients; most have “glass” or “plastic.”

Microsoft has embraced this with Office 2007. Office used to be the standard windows application. Menu and toolbar on top, all with standard windows controls. Office 2007 threw this out and uses no standard controls, not even the system buttons.

So the question as a GUI designer is, what form of thought do you follow? Do you embrace the trend or do you stick with developing a standard app? For many years I believed in abiding by the users’ color scheme and the operating systems look and feel. Lately my mood has changed.

When designing the GUI for snapACT I toyed with many different looks and color schemes. I hate to be a follower, but what I settled on was black and glass. I didn’t come to this because I wanted to follow a trend, in fact, I wanted to do just the opposite. However, I think it looks good.

Images “pop” on a black background, and that is what this application is all about: your images.

Take a look for yourself and see if you agree.

(this is a shot in progress, so items such as icons are just place holders)