UI and UX

[slooksterpsv]

I want to discuss a topic that has been at the back of my mind for a while, User Interface and UI Design.

Now first let me say I was not a fan of Office 2007's UI for Word and what not, but after using it and 2010 when working at a call center for Microsoft, it really grew on me to where I do like the Ribbon UI.

Most computer OS's that are GUI have a File, Edit, Edit, View, Toolbars, etc. interface.

Web Pages have a variety of UI Designs.

With Touch Screen Phones, they have their own unique UI e.g. I slide my finger to unlock my phone, or slide this or that.

With Ubuntu, I feel like the computer experience could be more simplified while becoming more functional with application UI. I mean with the desktop they've got the "dock-like" "Apple-like" interface. Albeit, Apple disgusts me.

If you had to design a new UI for applications, let's make it simple, start with GEDIT, how would you change, update, make the UI look fresh, new, creative, functional, simple, etc.

If you don't want to consider one for GEDIT, how about... a web browser like Chrome or Firefox? LibreOffice Word? Maybe instead of a "ribbon-like" UI you do something different.

I want to see some creative, functional, simple, intuitive designs for UI's, how it would work, etc. Maybe we could innovate Ubuntu, Gnome, etc. by doing something like that. I'm going to come up with my own UI designs just to see what I can come up with. Post, reply, explain, etc.

[slooksterpsv]

Mine, not sure if you see where I"m going with that, but yeah, the bar at the bottom hides when not in use, but like
\[\B\] would stay visible even when the bottom bar hides.

[del_diablo]

199610
This is my only general comment, while it is not true for the application it is a screenshot of, it is true for a lot of application.
Basically a lot of them have a entire area of space that is only there because a standard specified it.

[NightwishFan]

My only problem with icon heavy interfaces is I recognize what an icon is much slower than I do written word. Also if I do not know what an icon is to begin with I need a tooltip to find out. Then again a very text heavy interface with lots of menus can be cluttered and taxing.

I have been doing some interface design and I find that a simple, single purpose application is the best idea. Though I do not like the idea of a single menu button it makes the most logical sense keeping the interface small but usable.

I did this mock-up in PyGTK+ really quick to show how I would do a simple UI.

[slooksterpsv]

Ok, interesting.

del_diablo - So how would you make it accessible for users to access menu items to save, open, exit, etc. apps ... well maybe not exit, but you know what I mean.

I'm going to do a better mock-up tomorrow morning when I get home from work. Or that, again, I want to see if we can innovate a simple, easy, functional way of handling applications.

NWF (NightwishFan) - yours is simple, you did that with pygtk+? Niiice. How would you extend functionality and give it a more user experienced design implementation (UX)?