Hy guys i need your help on an aesthetic problem that i have. I am working on a modular system and i am having problems in deciding which GUI aesthetic is better. The criterion that i want to use for evaluating the GUI aesthetic is based on readability, colors contrasts, simplicity, symmetry,impression trend and module complexity. Based on this i still have problems in deciding which one to use or to redesign everything in a different way. I am looking for criticism and other ideas of GUI design EX: (Microsoft Visual Studio has a great GUI design in my opinion but also many retro DOS software has great GUI design). Thanks a lot.

Here is one module with the same functionality design but different aesthetics based on different ideas. :

@ingox Thank you. Can i ask what attracts you for the one on the right ?

Wonderful design and color choice, I love both but I would prefer the one on the left because:

• Few Colors separate clearly sections Noise Type / Wave etc...
• Dark theme always better for the eye, and more trendy

@60hz You got the idea of the first on the left (The use of colors is to separate sections). And i agree dark is good for eyes. A bad point is that is hard to match dark theme with bright theme if you need a more complex theme, something like a mix theme where you need different elements bright and others dark. Thanks.

@Boran-Robert Do as many forums do and offer a choice?
It's hard to tell how good they are against the white background in this forum.
My desktops are always black (safety when projecting video) and although the right one is more readable against white the left one might be fine as a patch window for me.
David.

@whale-av Yes you mention a very important point, i agree. The second on the right works better for the natural Pure Data environment but if you have a dark grey background the one on the left is better. The possibility to change the theme is quite handy in this situation. Thanks.

idk if this is relevant but you might find the composition of the palettes solarized and selenized to be somewhat of interest

https://github.com/jan-warchol/selenized

out of these choices I would say that the dark theme should have more contrast to be more easily readable, so I would go with the right

@seb-harmonik.ar Thanks for sharing. Palettes colors in GUI design is very important.

The one on the right is MUCH more readable, since the contrast between the text and background color is higher.

The one on the left could work if the text in the top two sections was lighter-- I do like the idea of separating sections based on colors.

Bryan

@bcgreen24 Thanks.