4 ms·

Very interested to hear about a high quality UI as I have never encountered one

XorNot 1y ago
I would argue Windows Forms somewhere between 3.1 and 95 more or less nailed it. It's boring, but it's clear.
dlivingston 1y ago
Apple used to be very good at this, especially in the pre-iPhone OS X era. iTunes: https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/192853040 https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/192853040 Preview: https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/preview.png https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/wp-content/uploads/... Garage Band: https://inside.wooster.edu/technology/wp-content/uploads/sites/83/2018/11/garageband-interface.jpg https://inside.wooster.edu/technology/wp-content/uploads/sit...
- tarentel 1y ago
  Is that last one actually Garage Band? I used to use it a very long time ago and I don't remember it ever looking like that. It does, however, look basically the same as Logic does today. I'm not sure if I'd consider it a good GUI or not.
paddy_m 1y ago
CAD Software. There is CAD vs CAD esports. https://www.youtube.com/live/C1CqIcfDKbQ?t=1987s https://www.youtube.com/live/C1CqIcfDKbQ?t=1987s It seems dominated by solidworks but other programs (NX, Fusion 360...?) are allowed. The bloomberg terminal UI. Some emacs setups. (much more variability than VIM) Some VIM setups. The thing that all of these have in common is that they are designed for experts, not for every user. Also each one of those is a custom full platform app (or primarily text based) vs web app.
- skydhash 1y ago
  Conflating beginner tools and expert tools (user-friendliness) is usually where everything go wrong. For most people, Wordpad was enough, Microsoft Word was for when you need a bit more control. But an expert tool is Adobe InDesign where you have the maximum control. And the UI is quite different. Same when learning to code, a basic text editor like Gnome's Text Editor or Nano is all you need. But an expert will reach out to Intellij's for his project because his needs are more complex.
- shove 1y ago
  Another common conflation is graphic design vs application design. Fusion 360 has strong graphic design and meh application design.
codyb 1y ago
You got downvoted for the snark, but damned if it ain't a reasonable opinion. If you read the seminal "Design of Everyday Things" by Norman Rockwell you'll come away annoyed at half the physical _doors_ you walk through... here in 2025. I've been pushing these terms to help us talk about and design better interfaces at work... Static Interfaces - Your supermarket's pretty much a static interface. The frame of whatever website you're looking at. These are static. They've very powerful and were pretty much all you had before digital interfaces became ubiquitous. There's an initial learning curve where you figure out navigation, and then for the most part it's fairly smooth sailing from there provided the controls are exposed well. Adaptive Interfaces - These interfaces attempt to "adapt" to your needs. Google is probably one of the most successful adaptive interfaces out there. A query for "Shoes" will show a series of shopping results, while a query for "Chinese food" will show a map of the restaurants nearby. The interface adapts to you. I call this narrow adaptive because the query triggers how the UI adapts. I think "wide area" adaptive interfaces where the interface attempts to meet your needs before you've had a chance to interact with the static interface around it are tremendously difficult and can't think of examples of them being done well. Adaptable Interfaces - This last interface bucket includes controls which allow a user to adapt the interface to their own needs. This may include dragging icons into a particular order, pinning certain view styles or filters, or customizing the look or behavior of the applications you're working with. Finder, the iPhone's basic UI, terminal, basic music catalog management (e.g. iTunes)... these are interfaces which are created once with an initial curve of varying difficulty to learn and then live on for decades without much change. Conclusion - The best interfaces combine an intuitive static frame, with queried adaptive elements, and adaptable features to efficiently meet the needs of a diverse group of user flows instead of attempting the one size fits all approach (which leaves 2/3rds of people annoyed).
- skydhash 1y ago
  Or you can focus on a single class and produce the best UI for that class. Static Interfaces for the common actions that everyone does. Best as basic utilities in the operating system (Notepad, The calculator) Adaptive Interfaces where you have a few advanced layouts for people that wants a bit more. (Wordpad, Notepad++, Kate,...) The expert tools (Blender, matlab, Adobe Illustrator,...) You will have a small userbase, but they're often willing to pay for a good tool that will solve their needs.

I would argue Windows Forms somewhere between 3.1 and 95 more or less nailed it. It's boring, but it's clear.

Apple used to be very good at this, especially in the pre-iPhone OS X era. iTunes: https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/192853040 https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/192853040 Preview: https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/preview.png https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/wp-content/uploads/... Garage Band: https://inside.wooster.edu/technology/wp-content/uploads/sites/83/2018/11/garageband-interface.jpg https://inside.wooster.edu/technology/wp-content/uploads/sit...

tarentel 1y ago
Is that last one actually Garage Band? I used to use it a very long time ago and I don't remember it ever looking like that. It does, however, look basically the same as Logic does today. I'm not sure if I'd consider it a good GUI or not.

paddy_m 1y ago

CAD Software. There is CAD vs CAD esports. https://www.youtube.com/live/C1CqIcfDKbQ?t=1987s https://www.youtube.com/live/C1CqIcfDKbQ?t=1987s It seems dominated by solidworks but other programs (NX, Fusion 360...?) are allowed. The bloomberg terminal UI. Some emacs setups. (much more variability than VIM) Some VIM setups. The thing that all of these have in common is that they are designed for experts, not for every user. Also each one of those is a custom full platform app (or primarily text based) vs web app.

skydhash 1y ago
Conflating beginner tools and expert tools (user-friendliness) is usually where everything go wrong. For most people, Wordpad was enough, Microsoft Word was for when you need a bit more control. But an expert tool is Adobe InDesign where you have the maximum control. And the UI is quite different. Same when learning to code, a basic text editor like Gnome's Text Editor or Nano is all you need. But an expert will reach out to Intellij's for his project because his needs are more complex.
shove 1y ago
Another common conflation is graphic design vs application design. Fusion 360 has strong graphic design and meh application design.

codyb 1y ago

You got downvoted for the snark, but damned if it ain't a reasonable opinion. If you read the seminal "Design of Everyday Things" by Norman Rockwell you'll come away annoyed at half the physical _doors_ you walk through... here in 2025. I've been pushing these terms to help us talk about and design better interfaces at work... Static Interfaces - Your supermarket's pretty much a static interface. The frame of whatever website you're looking at. These are static. They've very powerful and were pretty much all you had before digital interfaces became ubiquitous. There's an initial learning curve where you figure out navigation, and then for the most part it's fairly smooth sailing from there provided the controls are exposed well. Adaptive Interfaces - These interfaces attempt to "adapt" to your needs. Google is probably one of the most successful adaptive interfaces out there. A query for "Shoes" will show a series of shopping results, while a query for "Chinese food" will show a map of the restaurants nearby. The interface adapts to you. I call this narrow adaptive because the query triggers how the UI adapts. I think "wide area" adaptive interfaces where the interface attempts to meet your needs before you've had a chance to interact with the static interface around it are tremendously difficult and can't think of examples of them being done well. Adaptable Interfaces - This last interface bucket includes controls which allow a user to adapt the interface to their own needs. This may include dragging icons into a particular order, pinning certain view styles or filters, or customizing the look or behavior of the applications you're working with. Finder, the iPhone's basic UI, terminal, basic music catalog management (e.g. iTunes)... these are interfaces which are created once with an initial curve of varying difficulty to learn and then live on for decades without much change. Conclusion - The best interfaces combine an intuitive static frame, with queried adaptive elements, and adaptable features to efficiently meet the needs of a diverse group of user flows instead of attempting the one size fits all approach (which leaves 2/3rds of people annoyed).

skydhash 1y ago
Or you can focus on a single class and produce the best UI for that class. Static Interfaces for the common actions that everyone does. Best as basic utilities in the operating system (Notepad, The calculator) Adaptive Interfaces where you have a few advanced layouts for people that wants a bit more. (Wordpad, Notepad++, Kate,...) The expert tools (Blender, matlab, Adobe Illustrator,...) You will have a small userbase, but they're often willing to pay for a good tool that will solve their needs.