Prettier GUIs thanks to separators
I read a very interesting essay on OSnews regarding the improvement of GUI layout with separators and containers. Essentially, the whole premise is that visual elements in most interfaces are needlessly cluttered and it is precisely this congestion which decreases the usability and aesthetic appeal of applications. In response to this problem, the author demonstrates how good layout conventions employing containers and separators can improve visual definition and arrangement. He goes on to elaborate on the potential benefits of using open standards like XML and SVG to aid in GUI creation and puts a considerable amount of emphasis on inheritance among GUI components.
Now, while the examples in the essay are extremely enlightening, I still feel that certain, poorly-thought-out interfaces are beyond help. At the very least, it made me think twice about the importance of the margin and padding properties in CSS while giving me a whole new outlook on the apps I use every day.
An interesting article, thanks for highlighting it. Whilst I disagree with the author, that all borders and dead space are evil, I do like the directions his mockups went. I like the flat, less cluttered appearence.
My pet peeve is the chat window of Pidgin, it wastes so much space on padding. Like html of old, it’s styling (such as border width) is hard coded in the source.
As a result I had a play with Anjuta, to make a mockup of that chat window. The container based layout is still less flexible than html/svg css would allow. However, I think it meets most of the author’s goals. Alex