Critique My GUI please

[Ed Tse]

I will submit my jar next week. Please provide any comment

Image of my App

I chose not to implement the 48 hour rules but have made availability date that is later than today unbookable. For testing purpose, I have set today's date as 7/27/2005.

[Alex Belisle Turcot]

Hi,

I don't how much you're allowed to post that... I believe it might be against the certification/forum rules.

Regards,
Alex

[Alex Belisle Turcot]

Hi

still, some minor tips..

- It is not clear to me what "Search for" is. Maybe it's related to your assignment and it's fine (I'm doing B&S)..

- Also, you might want to check the alignment of your "Book" button.

- I never thought of the "and/or" search that way.. If the client chooses "Or", than you perform 2 Searches and concatenate them ? I think it's a nice feature.

- Do you have a scrollbar when the windows is smaller ?

- I like the feature of "filtering".

- I personally think the options are jammed together at the bottom. Maybe you could put "Filter" on top, just below the menu, and then extend the "book panel" so that the book button is on the right of its field.

- You can click on "Clear" when no values are in. Maybe it could be nice to disabled/Enable it (same as you seem to do for "book"). Or maybe not, maybe it introduce errors, when your typing in the field, the button does not know yet that values are inserted... You figure it out

- Your book section, is it really "Book Menu" or should be something else than "Menu" ? You did not put "Menu" for the 2 other sections. Maybe "Booking" would be better suited.

- I see you put the first letter of every words in capital letter, except "Filter options".

I did my best.

Regards,
Alex
[ December 17, 2007: Message edited by: Alex Belisle Turcot ]

[Alex Belisle Turcot]

Also,

- How can you perform a full search ?
- How can you trigger the search with criteria ? hitting "Enter" ? There is no button to trigger it? Not clear.. without being able to try it, just looking at it, I don't know how to do it.

- "Clear search" feels like a "Perform Search" button.

Regards,
Alex
[ December 17, 2007: Message edited by: Alex Belisle Turcot ]

[Ed Tse]

Originally posted by Alex Belisle Turcot:
Hi

still, some minor tips..

- It is not clear to me what "Search for" is. Maybe it's related to your assignment and it's fine (I'm doing B&S)..

It's a full search, so if a string is specified there, every field would be able to match it. I agree it's kind of confusing.

- Also, you might want to check the alignment of your "Book" button.

Oh yeah, the Inset is not set. Thanks.

- I never thought of the "and/or" search that way.. If the client chooses "Or", than you perform 2 Searches and concatenate them ? I think it's a nice feature.

I actually didn't use the under layer db search as I find concatenating kind of useless, I search in the application level from all the DB record. Do you think there is a problem with that implementation?

- Do you have a scrollbar when the windows is smaller ?

Yes, a vertical scrollbar.

- I like the feature of "filtering".

- I personally think the options are jammed together at the bottom. Maybe you could put "Filter" on top, just below the menu, and then extend the "book panel" so that the book button is on the right of its field.

Hmm, I will think about that.

- You can click on "Clear" when no values are in. Maybe it could be nice to disabled/Enable it (same as you seem to do for "book"). Or maybe not, maybe it introduce errors, when your typing in the field, the button does not know yet that values are inserted... You figure it out


- Your book section, is it really "Book Menu" or should be something else than "Menu" ? You did not put "Menu" for the 2 other sections. Maybe "Booking" would be better suited.

Okay, I'll change that.

- I see you put the first letter of every words in capital letter, except "Filter options".

I did my best.

Regards,
Alex

[ December 17, 2007: Message edited by: Alex Belisle Turcot ]

Thank you so much, it's always good to have 2nd pair of eye.

[Ed Tse]

Originally posted by Alex Belisle Turcot:
Hi,

I don't how much you're allowed to post that... I believe it might be against the certification/forum rules.

Regards,
Alex

I reread the FAQ on the rules, the goal is not to disclose the question of the exam, which I didn't. Another rule is not not copy and paste big chunk of code solution which I didn't. I have only post a Swing GUI, I hope I did not break any rule of this forum.

[Ed Tse]

Originally posted by Alex Belisle Turcot:
Also,

- How can you perform a full search ?

By typing text in the Search for textfield.

- How can you trigger the search with criteria ? hitting "Enter" ? There is no button to trigger it? Not clear.. without being able to try it, just looking at it, I don't know how to do it.

It's an incremental search like search in firefox, so it searches as you type, so there is no need to have a search button.

- "Clear search" feels like a "Perform Search" button.

Regards,
Alex

[ December 17, 2007: Message edited by: Alex Belisle Turcot ]

[Ed Tse]

I am just scared by implementing a restriction on not allowing to book records that have past, the person who marks my exam uses a db full of records dated in 2006 and he will fail my app for not being able to book anything.

[Herman Schelti]

hi Ed,

I did not implement any restrictions on the date of booking and justified that in my documentation (I already forgot the name of that document).

Herman

[Ed Tse]

Originally posted by Herman Scheltinga:
hi Ed,

I did not implement any restrictions on the date of booking and justified that in my documentation (I already forgot the name of that document).

Herman

choices.txt?

[Herman Schelti]

yes,

choices.txt

[Andrew Monkhouse]

Originally posted by Alex Belisle Turcot:
I don't how much you're allowed to post that... I believe it might be against the certification/forum rules.

Originally posted by Ed Tse:

I reread the FAQ on the rules, the goal is not to disclose the question of the exam, which I didn't. Another rule is not not copy and paste big chunk of code solution which I didn't. I have only post a Swing GUI, I hope I did not break any rule of this forum.

The moderators of this forum have discussed this in the past, and the general consensus was that posting an image of your application should be reasonable. We have felt that:

GUI design is subjective

Even though you have posted this image, others may not agree with what you have done, so it may not help them. As far as "general principles of GUI design" are concerned, there is little difference between someone looking at your screenshot and looking at other applications they have on their computer (if there is an application on your computer that you feel is easy to use - why? if there is an application you feel is hard to use - why? Now apply those thoughts (everyone should probably do this anyway)).

Having a screenshot does not give away a solution.

Even if someone likes your screenshot, they still have to work out how to build their own version of it. So they will have to learn Swing anyway. It is not as though they will save themselves work by doing this.

Trying to duplicate your design might actually increase the workload for another person.

As an example, you have checkboxes to determine whether to show booked / expired items (I love this by the way). For someone to duplicate your GUI they will have to add functionality to their application to handle both these checkboxes.
I had exactly the same questions as Alex.

I think the Search pane and the Book pane look cramped in relation to the Filter pane. My personal preference would be to even out the 3 of them (possibly reduce Filter and simultaneously increase the other 2). You could also move the filter options up to a menu (I am on the fence as to which would be better).

Regards, Andrew