How To Make a GUI look nice [closed]

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I am currently designing a GUI to control some software. I am using fltk, but I could just as easily be using Qt or Windows Forms. I have all the controls I want, and it is fairly well organized, but it just looks bad. Are there any references or tips to making a GUI look nice?

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The best advice I can give someone who has no UI design experience is this: make it look as much like all other programs as possible. Use the same colors, same fonts, same overall layout. Use a menubar with the appropriate items.

You might also want to take a look at the answers to the question Easily Digestible UI Tips for Developers

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There are whole books written on this topic. You could search on Amazon for "user interface design" or similar terms, and find several hits. Alternatively, consult Microsoft's User Experience Guidelines, Apple's Human Interface Guidelines, or similar ones from open source desktop projects like GNOME and KDE.

The best rule of thumb is to make it boring—your app should look like everything else and try not to stand out. That makes it easier for people to figure out how to use your software.

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If you want some general guidelines, you might look at this: http://www.deepsloweasy.com/HFE%20resources/Enterprise%20Wide%20Guiguide.pdf

It is not as much "good looking" as requirements for different types of elements so the GUI is usable (i.e. more UX than design), but the guidance can help you organize the content. If you google GUIDe, you can find a decent treatise on how to design GUIs that help user's focus on what is important. Once again, not "good looking", per se.

One of the mistakes I see often is overloading a form with too much information. Break the bits out and capture over many forms can declutter the GUI and it will end up looking better. If you set up grouping boxes, etc, you can end up with a better design. I, personally, find using a pad of paper, Visio or PhotoShop help me with my designs. I do this prior to actually laying down the bits in a programming tool.