Post Pics of Your Control Pages! (LOCKED - create new topic)

Posted on
Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:18 pm
gtreece offline
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Re: Post Pics of Your Control Pages HERE!

Here's a screen capture of the DirectTV control page I'm working on for a Blackberry Playbook. The empty space at the top will be for links to other control pages, and/or scenes. I'll carry the same theme through all my control pages.

Note, I did not design the graphics. I'm using a purchased template set and customizing as needed.
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Posted on
Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:37 pm
Mark offline
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Re: Post Pics of Your Control Pages HERE!

Very nice! I'm a big fan of the dark background. Easy on the night-time eyes!

Posted on
Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:59 pm
Mark offline
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Re: Post Pics of Your Control Pages HERE!

PS, Matt, Jay,

I hope you still have on your wish list: a Touch preference setting for a dark startup screen. We're always greeted by that blinding screen whilst adjusting, middle-of-the-night, that Indigo doo-dad...

Posted on
Wed Mar 28, 2012 2:37 pm
roussell offline
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Re: Post Pics of Your Control Pages HERE!

gtreece wrote:
...Note, I did not design the graphics. I'm using a purchased template set and customizing as needed.


Where did you purchase that set of graphics? I love 'em!

Terry

Posted on
Wed Mar 28, 2012 10:40 pm
gtreece offline
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Re: Post Pics of Your Control Pages HERE!

roussell wrote:
gtreece wrote:
...Note, I did not design the graphics. I'm using a purchased template set and customizing as needed.


Where did you purchase that set of graphics? I love 'em!

Terry


This has gallery links to the templates:
http://guijaboard.com/gui-templates/tactical

I found the single use license in the blog, which brought the price down to something I was comfortable with:
http://guijaboard.com/gui-news/tactical-graphics-kit-icon-set-single-use-license-available

Still pricey, but I figure if I can pay $60 to turn a light on and off, I can afford to make the controllers look good doing it. It would also take me forever and day to do the graphics myself.

Posted on
Wed Mar 28, 2012 11:03 pm
Mark offline
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Re: Post Pics of Your Control Pages HERE!

That's a fair price, and I'd say a justfiable expense. Why put all the time and money into a system, and then slap on a shoddy front end? I'm a pro, with all the high-end graphics software and skill, but it still took me countless hours to build my GUI. $100 is cheap.

Posted on
Wed Mar 28, 2012 11:32 pm
gtreece offline
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Re: Post Pics of Your Control Pages HERE!

Pricing was not only fair, but it's also a pretty comprehensive set of template elements and icons. It's the kind of task I would normally do myself, just for the fun of doing it, so that's really where my decision was. Saying that it would take me 'countless hours' is a bit of an under-statement. ;-)

It's not like I don't still have a lot of work to do, building out the control pages...

Posted on
Thu Mar 29, 2012 3:50 am
roussell offline
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Re: Post Pics of Your Control Pages HERE!

Thanks for the link. This guy posts from time-to-time on cocoontech, at least he used to I think. Everything he puts out has been high-quality. Agreed, $100 is not bad at all.

Terry

Posted on
Fri Mar 30, 2012 10:08 am
gtreece offline
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Re: Post Pics of Your Control Pages HERE!

I built a few more out, so that I could start to work out navigation. Right now, I'm looking at the bottom bar being major function groups, and a narrow top bar with a bit more localized 'back' functionality, so you can move within a function group without starting at the top level each time. Not sure I have it figured out yet, but I do like the way it's coming together. The DirecTV remote shows this concept, with a link back to 'Sources' in the upper left. That way I can use the whole screen for the remote, and ditch the bottom nave bar.

These screens are from a Blackberry Playbook, which is actually working pretty good for a touch screen remote, and they're attractive units. They feel more 'remote-sized' than an iPad or iPhone for some reason. Page load speeds are reasonably fast, but not comparable to the lightning speed on iPads. I'll have to decide if the cheap price point is worth it, compared to iPads. I want to have a lot of touch screen remotes, so price is definitely a factor.
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Posted on
Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:29 am
Mark offline
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Re: Post Pics of Your Control Pages HERE!

Not sure if you were asking, but that's never stopped me before! :D

As a GUI user and designer, I like to be able to move to any page, from any page. In other words, every page has a link on it to every other page. Having to go up and down a tree is tiresome for me, even if it's a few clicks (hey, if I wasn't lazy, I wouldn't be into H.A!). I don't want to have to go back to some master index page first before navigating to my next destination.

Have a look at my GUI on page 17. That left nav bar is identical on every one of my control pages, and clearly indicates which of those pages I'm on. I can go to any page, from any page.

Your nav interface indicates when you're on the alarm page, but also indicates the alarm page when you're on the camera page. That's a flaw in your GUI. Alarm page: alarm button on. Camera page: camera button on. Etc. Jump to camera page in one click from AV page, instead of having to go to alarm page first.

Sure it takes extra space, and arguably detracts from the page visually, but that's an easy trade for me. Your smaller screen might not make that practical, but if you can find the room to keep a persistent nav bar, that contains, and indicates, every control page, that's the ticket.

A better solution would be some sort of menu control type built into Indigo. A flyout or popup, something like that. This is a common need for all of us, I'd guess. Matt? Jay?

Posted on
Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:44 am
Mark offline
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Re: Post Pics of Your Control Pages HERE!

But forgot to mention, you're pages do look fantastic. Really attractive!

Sorry, am I too preachy on this forum? I like to think of it as passionate! :D

Posted on
Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:49 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: Post Pics of Your Control Pages HERE!

Yeah - some kind of pop-over would be cool. LOTS of stuff on the "that would be cool" list... ;)

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Fri Mar 30, 2012 12:26 pm
ckeyes888 offline
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Re: Post Pics of Your Control Pages HERE!

gtreece,

Great looking pages! Just a nit pick from a long time photo/effects guy...I see a number
of the icons have a light outer edge fringe that, for me anyway, detracts from the
otherwise excellent quality of the pages.

Be happy to fix them for you if you like.

Carl

Posted on
Fri Mar 30, 2012 12:40 pm
gtreece offline
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Re: Post Pics of Your Control Pages HERE!

Thanks, Mark. I don't think I'd post here, if I weren't prepared for feedback. ;-) I appreciate it, and I wish I had more places to see examples of working touch panels in functional homes.

I'm definitely still in the 'kick the tires' phase of my control pages. I'm pretty sure that when I get around to designing control pages for the monitor on my desk, I'll have a much more unified and comprehensive page layout, where more things are exposed on fewer pages.

My main goal, is to be able to control my house, as I move around my house, not while I'm sitting at my desk. I'd like to achieve that with not only my iPhone, but with wall mounted touch screens and table-top 'remotes' in the major activity areas. In those situations, I don't really need every single element exposed at a top level, and handling a touch device should be easy on the fingers. When I started layering on a lot of detail to pages, it became hard to read and interact with, so those details screens are likely to be at a lower navigational level than what my wife and daughter demand.

So I'm trying to figure out what major 'buckets' of control I'd like to have as I move around the house, and get those onto the bottom nav bar to quickly jump between them. As you noticed in the 'security' bucket, it includes both cameras and the alarm panel. I don't really need both of those to be one click away, so I put them both in the same bucket, with the ability to jump between them once in that bucket. I have more cameras to add, so I may end up with other tabs in the 'security' bucket.

In the case of cameras, it would be nice if there were a way to have buttons on a control page, change the value of another refreshing image control on that same page. In that case, I could probably combine a single camera video window with camera selector buttons, on the same page with an alarm panel layout, and get that to one page. Maybe there is a way, and I just haven't discovered it yet.

My goal is that the majority of items I actually interact with each day are 1 touch away, and the remainder are 2-3 touches away. I'm taking your comments to heart, and trying to figure out how to combine all video sources, a remote for the selected video source, and the lower nav bar, all onto one screen.

Posted on
Fri Mar 30, 2012 2:30 pm
gtreece offline
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Re: Post Pics of Your Control Pages HERE!

Thanks, Carl. The icons are designed with a thin light border, with a drop shadow around it, to help them stand off from a dark background. I'm not sure what you're seeing, but I think it's intended by the designer. I also still have a canvas to layer in behind the keypad style buttons, which brings out the definition of the drop shadows.

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