Strengthening GUI Development Skills

Question

I have been developing Java Swing for some time now, and I am starting to feel that Swing-based desktop applications seem a bit dated and tedious to develop.

I see new applications that look very sleek and modern, like TweetDeck and Synthesia (playing the piano). Despite the wisdom in Haase and Guy "Filthy Rich Clients", I believe that writing applications like these in Swing would be quite a challenge.

Assuming that desktop applications will not completely disappear over the next 5 years (or that the separation between the website and the desktop will become smooth) , what languages ​​and user interface technologies should front-end developers develop to support current? What is the next big thing?

Answer 1

Microsoft WPF is probably one of the latest, coolest technologies.

This allows you to make much better looking graphical interfaces.

You should also learn some of Microsoft Expression . They allow you to add an additional torch to GUIs.

Answer 2

I'm not sure the “next big thing” in user interface design. In any case, the “next big thing” is the multi-touch interface, the popular tablet and smartphones. Given this, I think it would be wise to learn how to create multi-touch interfaces by downloading sdk for a mobile phone or tablet that supports multi-touch.

Answer 3

If you like Swing, check out Google GWT .
This is similar to Swing for the Internet, almost everything.

Answer 4

OpenGL / Direct3D developers will always be needed, but it can be even lower than what you say.

On the Windows side, WPF and Windows Forms are available.

Cocoa's Mac / iOS has a way.

There are several options on Linux, such as GTK or QT .

You might just want to bite a bullet and learn HTML5 / JavaScript. I doubt that will leave soon.

Answer 5

I would suggest looking for Flex. It is much more interesting to develop than Swing and b / c its Flash, it can be launched in a browser or on the desktop.

Answer 6

Java is still working fine. You simply replace the standard image controls and use the image states to change the look of the mouse and mouse clicks.

Answer 7

I would also suggest WPF as another user interface structure to get under your belt, because it really provides some pretty powerful user interfaces in desktop applications (and most of what could be in WPF can be translated into Silverlight for webapps) .

On the flip side, instead of looking for a new language or technology for a new interface, I think that you'd better work with the user interface in terms of usability and track the trends that the waves are currently creating.

As an example, one of the paradigm shifts that I see in user interface design (mainly on the Internet) is the shift to making important things bigger and less important than less — including the yes / no buttons in dialog box. I’m still warming up to this idea because it flies in the face of the consistent look of the button to show users their options.

Instead of offering options in a world today where we constantly make decisions, the purpose of this newer user interface is to panic a happy journey. If the user decides that he wants to do something else, they can, but the user interface will force the user to make a little effort and read the fine print.

Another example is the flash highlighting of a recent change made by a person (SO does this, but I forget the term used to describe this effect) when accessing the site.

Finally, and this is one of my favorites, the transition from the administrative / user view (also mainly in the webapp field) to the WYSIWYG ad-hoc editor ... Flickr is a vivid example of this, where you can change the captions in the picture by clicking on the current signature and edit it inline, without having to go to a separate administrative view to edit these values.

Does anyone else see such interesting and new trends?

Answer 8

You programmed in Swing for a while, and you just started to feel that it is out of date? :)

A swing looks like shit, no matter what tricks look like people do. In fact, they put Swing-based desktop application vendors like us at a disadvantage because of how shiny and beautiful WPF material looks like.

If you want to stay in the Java field, I recommend you try SWT and JFace. You do not need Eclipse for this. But it is a much better looking system with a much nicer API.

If you want to be attractive, WPF is your friend. You are limited to Windows and cannot use Java (both showstoppers are for me), but you cannot ignore the benefits of this version of the SDK, as it is so closely related to the latest versions of Windows.

Answer 9

I think the point of the book you mention and most of the answers here is that most languages ​​give you tools (or enough rope to hang yourself;) to throw away the ugly main controls of any OS that you draw any user interface, which you want. Yes, it is tiring for the skin or otherwise to manually perceive the visual representation of the controls in the user interface, but if it is important for you, then you will do it and perhaps get a reward for it. Or criticized for violating "platform interface standards."