GUI patterns

Jeff Atwood

16 Aug 2004 — 1 min read — Comments

With all this talk of high-falutin’ coding design patterns, I’m surprised we haven’t seen more sites that cover GUI design patterns, like welie.com*. What a great site!

Consider the iPod: it’s a 2.5″ hard drive, strapped to a battery and a LCD, that plays MP3 files. Dozens of other taiwanese manufacturers make products exactly like this, but Apple is the only company making a fortune at it, and inspiring fanatical product loyalty. Why? It has the most usable interface.

The mechanical things (coding patterns) are actually quite easy. It’s the soft GUI stuff that is difficult, and that’s ultimately what makes your product sexy, desirable – and a success. We may think coding patterns are sexy, but they’re invisible to users.

*via HMK’s very cool blog

Stay Gold, America

We are at an unprecedented point in American history, and I'm concerned we may lose sight of the American Dream.

The Great Filter Comes For Us All

With a 13 billion year head start on evolution, why haven't any other forms of life in the universe contacted us by now? (Arrival is a fantastic movie. Watch it, but don't stop there - read the Story of Your Life novella it was based on

I Fight For The Users

If you haven't been able to keep up with my blistering pace of one blog post per year, I don't blame you. There's a lot going on right now. It's a busy time. But let's pause and take a moment

The 2030 Self-Driving Car Bet

It's my honor to announce that John Carmack and I have initiated a friendly bet of $10,000* to the 501(c)(3) charity of the winner’s choice: By January 1st, 2030, completely autonomous self-driving cars meeting SAE J3016 level 5 will be commercially available for passenger

Read more

Stay Gold, America

The Great Filter Comes For Us All

I Fight For The Users

The 2030 Self-Driving Car Bet