[Usability] Our approach to GUI design

[Joachim Noreiko <jnoreiko yahoo com>]

Shortly before the 2.14 release I took part in a few
usability reviews on IRC. In the last couple of weeks,
I've seen a few screenshots of work in progress on new
applications or tools.
In all occasions, fairly basic mistakes in GUI design
have leapt out at me within seconds: why is that label
bold? What's a File menu doing there? The OK and
Cancel are the wrong way round -- that sort of thing.
Really basic stuff that I know because a) I know the
HIG, and b) I have an eye for visual detail.

This makes me wonder: is some of our work on usability
the wrong way round? We leave the developer with the
HIG and they do their best, and then we come along and
spot all the mistakes.
Programmers don't draw their own icons, they get an
artist to do it -- should we expect programmers to
design their own GUIs?

What if a developer could post to the usability list,
or a new GUI design list, and say "I need a dialog box
that lets the user choose x,y, and z: please make me a
Glade file"?

It also makes sense from the point of view of
resources. The GUI designers will know the HIG
backwards and forwards, and this would free the
developer to concentrate on the code.

What do you all think? Is this desirable, and is it feasible?


	
	
		
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