#GUI design

[forgottenfuturist]

The UI Inspiration Factor

After Apple spent the mid-90s slowly circling the drain, the return of Steve Jobs and the popularity of the iMac were starting to reverse the company's fortunes by the end of the decade. Their "Think Different" ad campaign tried to position the Mac as the computer of dreamers and visionaries, and white Mac OS did have more visual "fit and finish" than Windows . . .

. . . it was getting harder to ignore its underpinnings as a single-tasking system from the Bronze Age of personal computing. Apple's inability to create a more modern Mac OS was big reason why the company almost went out of business, and they'd acquired Steve Jobs' NeXT corporation specifically to adapt their super-advanced OS to the Mac.

The earliest developer builds of the new Mac OS, called OS X, basically looked like NeXTStep reskinned to look like Mac OS 9.

It was a very conservative approach that mirrored what Microsoft had done with the Windows NT family: upgrade the tech under the hood, but retain the familiar UI with basically no changes. But by the turn of the millennium, even Microsoft realized that their newest Windows version needed a bold new look to commemorate the consumer release's move to the NT platform:

The plasticky "Fisher Price" look of Windows XP was only a light coat of paint on Windows 2000, though, and it didn't take much digging before you ran into UI elements that were untouched since Windows 3.x. It was even possible to turn off the new UI altogether and make Windows XP look exactly like Windows 2000.

With OS X, Apple went in an entirely different direction:

The new Macintosh UI didn't just wow people, it inspired them. Back then, popular apps were a lot less platform-agnostic than they are today. About the only mainstream application suite that ran on the Mac was Microsoft Office. Adobe had yet to create a version of Photoshop for Mac OS X, almost none of the other popular games and applications from the Windows world had Mac versions, and Apple's one-button mouse interface didn't even have a right-click option. You had to hold down the CTRL key on the keyboard and click the mouse to bring up a context menu. And yet it's hard to explain to folks who weren't there how much everyone who saw OS X needed to have it.

Much as the iMac looked totally different and more futuristic than everyone else's beige boxes, OS X looked like a user interface that really was from the future. Even though it wouldn't really be mature and feature-complete for a few more years, OS X made you feel like you could sit down and create something amazing with it. That feeling was an impossible thing to quantify, and it was something that Microsoft's creatively-blind culture was totally incapable of understanding or even believing in.

Sadly, by the time I was finally able to make the jump to Mac, the Aqua visual style had given way to the flat UI that was inspired by Jony Ive's iOS 7 design. I still like it better than Windows, but there was something inspiring about those perfectly glassy buttons and scroll bars and those big, hyper-detailed icons that was lost in the move to "modern" flat design. I hope the pendulum swings the other way eventually.

[drawingisthinking]

[deanwax]

I love all of you but when you are customising your blog themes please remember that the recommended minimum size for a tap target (i.e. and element you click on, like the reblog button) is 44 x 44 pixels and if you make it smaller then you risk your blog being inaccessible to a LOT of people.

[duplicityvn]

hahahaha who needs a break--

--not meeee

Nah I'm kidding, breaks are important! All I wanted to do, for some reason, was work on Duplicity! "orz Update below!

As of right now, 3,861 words have been drafted into the script. That's the intro scene and a majority of the scene after that!

more will probably be written tonight. Or I might work on character sketches since I've gotten all the profiles completed (❁´◡`❁) I'm in an artsy kind of mood anyway.

Speaking of artsy, take a look at this mock-up!

It's a bookmark and sticky note! I thought that was so adorable hahaha.

This is most likely going to be the final UI design of the dialogue, name, and choice boxes! The quick menu will sit at the bottom of the dialogue box as usual. I didn't want to crowd the screen adding additional elements for that.

I'm still throwing around ideas for the game menu. I was thinking of an open spiral notebook, so that might be changed eventually. That might be one of the last things I finalize though, because I'm sure it'll be a huge headache.

And because it's a mock-up, the font is not going to stay the same. I'll find something that better fits the "mood" of the story. Additional changes may be made, I dunno yet.

I will be redoing all backgrounds, since the general settings and story have changed. They'll probably be the same quality as the one in the mock-up though hahaha, sorry I suck at drawing backgrounds ╰(*°▽°*)╯

I thiiiink that's all I had to say "orz

[cat-appreciator]

Well, now I’m hungry.

"the three dots on the side" call her by her REAL NAME.. Meatballs Menu

[humming-fly]

was thinking about that one blind professor post earlier today and how well it applied to the aptly named Team Dark

(really 'Team Dark' just sounds a lot cooler than 'Team Saves-On-Electricity')

[cafeyote]

me and gang at the haunted house

[depresed-duck]

this was funnier in my head

[beebeedibapbeediboop]

He is literally just a guy

[clearlydusty]

Made some happy mouthwashing fanart, all credit for the images go to @joetastic2739, thank you joetastic for feeding me and everyone else in the MW community <3

Also click for much better quality cuz this looks TRASH now that I’m seeing it again

(close ups and links to joetastics posts below !! )

Anya Steam awards , Anya admiring herself

Daisuke's Daisuke Dance , Daisuke as Yosuke

[crazycometspecular]

Jayce “I’m gonna touch it” Talis

[thatneoncrisis]

fucked up and evil that i Have been drawing and writing all through january but none of you are allowed to see it

[rebelsafoot]

i took out the other people sitting at the table in the original comic because i did NOT want to draw glindas gay ass friends

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

that stupid little guy thar he hates

[jabberwick]

Human Bill Cipher

(Based on Alex Hirsch's "canon" design)

And just to be clear, writing dissertations at me justifying why he should instead be a conventionally attractive twink will involuntarily cause me to draw him with even fewer teeth.

[cronchy-baguette]

The vampire comic featuring Marty and Clarice that I made for my comics class this semester :DD enemies to lovers to ??????? but I promise eventually there's a happy ending