Theodor Storm Kristensen

Searching for a Good User Interface

When I started developing my application I knew that I needed a solid user interface to keep up with other applications on the market. I tried several times to create a user interface for myself, however in the end I realized that I was going to fail, simply because maintaining a good interface is a task that only dedicated professionals can manage. This was when I started looking for online components. I had three simple requirements for the components:

• ease of development
• customization
• and skinning

Realizing that DevExpress met those criteria with ease, I decided to try it out. While building my demo application, I noticed that the suite not only had great design time experience, but also did everything for me, so I didn’t even have to set other forms’ themes – it was fully automatic!

Instant User Feedback Approval

As mentioned earlier, I had set up my own UI controls – in this case a ribbon and some docking functionality. I wasn’t receiving much feedback on my project from my potential users, which was very disturbing for me. When I posted screenshots of the same application using DXperience, the number of interested users increased dramatically. I was receiving much more valuable feedback, and therefore I could implement better and more time saving features for my users.

Additionally – while designing the application, I wasn’t only getting what I needed – I received plenty more. This meant a lot to me! It simply tells me that the company behind the tools I am using genuinely has interest in their users satisfaction with their products. Of course, the application looks much better now! Just look at these before and after pictures below:

My application, Moonlite Map Studio, with my own user interface

The same application, only difference is that it is using DXperience

With DevExpress components, I can have a lot of advanced functionality while still having a good looking and intuitive application layout. It makes my users happy, and when my users are happy, I’m happy.

DXperience Makes Designing Fun

With DXperience, I have re-discovered the joy of designing an application. Before DXperience, the process of designing was a slow task for finding exceptions and user interface problems. Now however, I can focus on the actual layout and how I want my users to interact with the application. It also gives me more time for creating higher quality applications.

Unique – Like Firefox

One of my biggest concerns when trying DXperience was that my application wouldn’t be unique – I wanted to support skinning, and DXperience did that, however I wasn’t sure that my users were patient or skilled enough to create bitmap based skins, only to realize that skins weren’t the only thing that made my application look unique – it was the customization, too.

And even though the number of skins for DXperience is a lot lower than for example the number of skins for the Mozilla Firefox internet browser, I feel I can actually compare my application to Firefox. The reason is the large number of customizable features that DXperience has, that even though I use the same skin that many other users do, I can customize the components to be unique for each. DXperience has so many options to explore!

An example is the DockManager component – I can customize the time it takes for a DockPanel to auto hide, whether it can auto hide, I can customize the buttons on its caption, I can even customize how it serializes! Now that’s just in the DockManager component – a lot more options are available in its DockPanel children.

Truly Satisfied

With DXperience, I feel that I can call my application’s user interface complete. I feel that through the power of DXperience, I have achieved a better layout that I had ever imagined. I am truly satisfied.

Theodor Storm Kristensen