Poll: colorish GUI or more classical?

[shamann]

In fact you mean that the background has to be as neutral as possible for you I presume.

It's not just neutral background, it's colour separation to distinguish use.

For example, which text is clearer in this picture:



The function of things in a GUI should be easily understood upon first glance, and clearly delineated for ease of use. GUI design isn't that different from typography, it's all about figuring a balance of style and use.

[cron]

Good example. Shows that you can be colourful without compromising readability.

[Frippertronix]

I like the second set of GUI's you showed, but mostly because they've done a good job of creating contrast by using 3D types of rendering, and making the faceplate look a little more like a real piece of rack gear.

To me, those elements are more important than the brightness of the colors per se.

Believe it or not, the good 3D rendering not only makes the knobs pop more, but it makes the plugin more fun to use and create with.

Other examples of great rendering and overal nice GUI's are:

PSP Vintage Warmer
All OhmForce classic GUI's
GeForce MiniMonsta
All Kjaerhus GUI's

[mn]

Voted classic. It's nothing personal, and I already own some of your plugs, but they can be very difficult to see and read sometimes. I have nothing against using color per se, or care if it looks "like everything else", but sometimes the color choices/combinations are extreme. Of the three you posted probably the easiest to read contrast-wise for me is the purple Phaser, but the hot purple is hard to look at long, for my eyes. I applaud some color, etc, but sometimes they are just too "hot".

Of course, the best solution is to make them skinnable . This can go some way to increasing the "buzz" around them as well because users get involved in the product and exchange skins, etc. And there are some damn fine skin makers at KVR, like amoebe, Shifrin, ...

[AndrewSimon]

GUI is very important.
Humans tend to be attracted to visual beauty without realizing it.
It would be really interesting to have some scientific research on this.
Something like using the same plug with two different GUI and a relatively high price.
I bet you more people will vote that the ugly duckling is over priced then it's swan clone and some of them will even claim the swan sounds better.

But what is beauty?
Well that's a harder question and it changes slightly from person to person.
All I can say that for me the classic set look much more attractive then the colorful ones.

[aciddose]

hah that is very subjective though. i hate plugins which attempt to look good. usually, i notice, the good looking (if you would call that good.. i usually would disagree) gui software tends to SUCK majorly, so much that i notice the quality of the software itself does not match up to the gui quality. it actually makes me never want to touch the software or anything associated with it again.

it isnt just that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, since often i dont really think a gui should have to be beautiful at all, regardless of what my sence of beauty is. (tron :O)

[scam_artist]

that PSP GUI shows a good balance of form and function - looks nice, is easy on the eye, and is clearly laid out

[bduffy]

hah that is very subjective though. i hate plugins which attempt to look good. usually, i notice, the good looking (if you would call that good.. i usually would disagree) gui software tends to SUCK majorly, so much that i notice the quality of the software itself does not match up to the gui quality. it actually makes me never want to touch the software or anything associated with it again.

it isnt just that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, since often i dont really think a gui should have to be beautiful at all, regardless of what my sence of beauty is. (tron :O)

See, that's funny: I would say the opposite - but - I will fully acknowledge that being a visual artist and being raised on slick advertising are largely responsible. But I think it simply is hard to resist something that looks like gear; you want to touch it!


I mean, how much could this suck?

[aciddose]

it isnt gear, mouse, not fingers. it looks decent, i'd say the code is what, 20k? while the graphics are 20mb? to me, that just sucks. btw, do you know zoner? xylem? i recognize the handle.

[deggy]

I know that probably the rest of the world disagrees but I really get irritated by flashy GUIs that have tons of animation because I assume that it's probably taking processing power away from the plug but that's just my opinion and it prob doesn't make that much sense.
d

[bduffy]

it isnt gear, mouse, not fingers. it looks decent, i'd say the code is what, 20k? while the graphics are 20mb? to me, that just sucks. btw, do you know zoner? xylem? i recognize the handle.

Zoner..Xylem...not offhand, I also do Kontakt forums quite heavily...Cubase forum sometimes?

Fair enough Aciddose, like I said, I like design and form. You should be commended for resisting marketing. Plus these guys charge up the wazoo and can afford to pay Captain Photoshop to get the drop-shadows just right! Also, I know much of the best gear, then and now, is not necessarily the best looking gear.

[bduffy]

I know that probably the rest of the world disagrees but I really get irritated by flashy GUIs that have tons of animation because I assume that it's probably taking processing power away from the plug but that's just my opinion and it prob doesn't make that much sense.
d

Oh, I agree about animation in plug-ins; it should be used sparingly, if at all. All I can think of is, "wasted CPU cycles...wasted CPU cycles..."

[Blue Cat Audio]

Oh, I agree about animation in plug-ins; it should be used sparingly, if at all. All I can think of is, "wasted CPU cycles...wasted CPU cycles..."

We are going a bit off-topic, different colors won't waste CPU . BTW even very complex graphic animations won't really waste your processing power since the GUI has a lower priority (well, it depends on hosts...). So it's not really a big issue. I would rather say "complex UI design wastes money", for sure!

[M'Snah]

I voted classic, but tbh I do like colorful GUI as well, but so far the bluecat plugins' colors do not really appeal to me (but that didn't stop me from buying )).

More examples: Voxengo's plugins don't have the prettiest GUI's either, but they are (most of them) consistent and business like. Kjaerhus, e.g. GAC, can be colorful too, but the entire GUI design is more 'professional' than just green or red. And without going into the current Wusik situation, Of all the Wusik-compliant VST's I find myself just using the default Manystation GUI all the time, even though there are many skins avaialable. The default skin of eXT compares a bit to the bluecat colors , and everyone is skinninig it

[mandolarian]

Yeah, why not let us skin the cat?