Where can I find resources for learning real world professional GUI design?
October 22, 2008 8:24 AM Subscribe
Where can I find books, tutorials, code samples, etc for learning real world professional GUI design?
My love is to be able to design UI for various devices and programs. For example, creating the iPhone UI from the grounds up would be my dream job. This page is probably the reason I me asking this question today (how could I work my way through so someday I could work there?). I have the elementary graphics programing and design experience (CS graduate) but don't know where to go from here. What I'm really talking about is not using other peoples components to make my GUI (!WPF for example) but starting from the bare bone and creating these rich user interfaces that you see in most of these demos myself.
I'd rather avoid enrolling in a university again for this (I'd rather self teach) so what do think?
My love is to be able to design UI for various devices and programs. For example, creating the iPhone UI from the grounds up would be my dream job. This page is probably the reason I me asking this question today (how could I work my way through so someday I could work there?). I have the elementary graphics programing and design experience (CS graduate) but don't know where to go from here. What I'm really talking about is not using other peoples components to make my GUI (!WPF for example) but starting from the bare bone and creating these rich user interfaces that you see in most of these demos myself.
I'd rather avoid enrolling in a university again for this (I'd rather self teach) so what do think?
How about getting involved with an open source UI project? e17, gtk, etc.
I doubt there's anything technical in there that you wouldn't be able to handle with a CS degree; the main difference will be that GUIs use an asynchronous event-driven model that is going to involve a lot of callbacks. And if you're working on embedded platforms, you may have to resort to the things people do to cope with limited resources: drop to assembly, very careful memory management, etc.
I'm sure there are plenty of books and trade magazines about the graphic design element.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:17 AM on October 22, 2008
I doubt there's anything technical in there that you wouldn't be able to handle with a CS degree; the main difference will be that GUIs use an asynchronous event-driven model that is going to involve a lot of callbacks. And if you're working on embedded platforms, you may have to resort to the things people do to cope with limited resources: drop to assembly, very careful memory management, etc.
I'm sure there are plenty of books and trade magazines about the graphic design element.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:17 AM on October 22, 2008
When you say "GUI design", are you talking merely about cool graphics and widgets?
Or are you talking about going further and understanding human interaction and work-flow in order to develop interfaces that work in a user-centered and natural manner? Big difference, there.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:18 AM on October 22, 2008 [1 favorite]
Or are you talking about going further and understanding human interaction and work-flow in order to develop interfaces that work in a user-centered and natural manner? Big difference, there.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:18 AM on October 22, 2008 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Right now I'm more concerned with the technical aspects of the design ex: programing, interface, graphics, etc (and no, it doesn't have to involve COOL widgets :) rather than human interaction (which I feel I already know some).
posted by clueless22 at 9:41 AM on October 22, 2008
posted by clueless22 at 9:41 AM on October 22, 2008
A lot of open source projects need people who are interested in UI, and right now, it seems like the mobile space has the most room for UI innovation, so maybe read up on the Android specs?
It also looks like jQuery is going to be powering a lot of interfaces (mobile and web) in the near future, and it's a blast to learn, so why not come up with some wacky concept interface / plugin to show off your chops?
posted by Hildago at 11:38 AM on October 22, 2008
It also looks like jQuery is going to be powering a lot of interfaces (mobile and web) in the near future, and it's a blast to learn, so why not come up with some wacky concept interface / plugin to show off your chops?
posted by Hildago at 11:38 AM on October 22, 2008
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I hate them already. I don't want a user interface to be astonishing. I want it to be straightforward enough to get out of my way and let me do my work.
posted by flabdablet at 9:07 AM on October 22, 2008