UI design tools [closed] - user-interface

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I need to find some good tools for designing UI. I need only the design part, I don't need any code generation or anything like that... It would be nice to find some freeware ;)
tia

I've used Balsamiq Mockups and have been real happy with it.

It depends what you mean exactly by 'design'.
If you mean graphic design, as in you want to produce nice fancy graphics for your UI that you then slice up and integrate, then personally I always use Fireworks from Adobe (originally a Macromedia product). It's a vector based graphics tool so I find it much simpler to use than Photoshop or Illustrator. Not free however.
If you mean design as in laying out UI elements and experimenting with different ideas, e.g. for prototyping, then pen and paper is the best tool there is! Use sticky notes or a whiteboard to simulate changes in state, it's very easy to iterate and to prototype with users. There's even a book been written on it. If you need something digital but low-fi, then Baclsamiq Mockups is a good choice, or anything that lets you draw simple shapes (Paint!).
(the preview screwed up the hyperlinks, I'm hoping this will turn out better when posted...)

The best free one I've found so far is Pencil, which can be installed as a stand-alone app or as a Firefox plugin.

Take a look at http://www.lovelycharts.com the key is simplicity so that you don't get wrapped up in design details when creating your UI

I find Mockup Screens really useful.
More posts on SO covering this topic:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/156937/do-you-know-an-alternative-to-balsamiq-mockups
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54606/what-software-can-i-use-to-create-ui-mockups
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5672/what-are-you-using-for-web-ui-layout-design

I have used Microsoft Expression . It is an awesome tool for UI designing.

You can try ForeUI, really handy and meet your requirements, they are offering free license now.

High Visual Design Greatest - Adobe Photoshop | Expression design | Gimp[Free]
Prototype - Expression Blend, PPT
here is my blog - http://artsmaths.blogspot.com/2009/03/tool-for-doing-ui-mockups.html

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Whats the best tools for drawing a "system overview" diagram? [closed]

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What tools is best for drawing an overview of a system for a new starter.
I want to show the components and if possible the technologies they use.
Current options include: Visio, Word, EA?, Paint!
Visual Studio isn't an option (too exprensive).
As VS is too expensive, perhaps Google Draw would fit the bill? It's part of Google Docs, which is free. Just sign in with your Google account.
It's got all the normal flow chart symbols, I find it dead easy to use, and it's on line so you can share it with a new starter just by sending them the URL and giving them access to the drawing.
I use it for nearly all my system diagrams now, because it's so easy to use.
I had the exact same issue a short while back and tried all those tools (and others). Here's what I found:
PowerPoint's the best option! You probably already know how to use it and it gets the job done.
If you're looking for some neat diagram elements (e.g. pictures of network components and such) then Visio is also a pretty good option.
Enterprise Architect (EA) is an overkill for the job and unless you're already proficient with it you'll find yourself spending way too much time on figuring out how to get it to do your bidding rather than just drawing the damn overview.
Paint is is too simplistic - you'll be more productive with PowerPoint.
http://www.bubbl.us/ (fast mindmapping)
http://www.Draw.io/ (online diagrams, incl. UML)
http://www.visual-paradigm.com/ (client program that needs to be installed)
I have taken to a combination of visio and powerpoint, usually embedding flowcharts into a PP deck. I've found I get more bang for the buck by maintaining a living architecture diagram in visio and then referencing it in other materials appropriate for their audience. For example, I might want to reference an arch diagram in both an introductory slideshow as well as detailed API documentation.

Are there any good tutorials for Mac GUI Applications with Cocoa? [closed]

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I has read some sample codes from Mac dev, and wrote currencyApplication by self.
But I still cannot understand clearly how to implement Mac GUI Applications.
From NSWindowController class reference, I found a Document-Based Applications Overview pdf for Documents Applications. But I want something like Dialog Programming in MFC.
Are there any good tutorials for Mac GUI Applications?
I found the tutorial from another class reference, NSPanel class reference.
The guide is named by Window Programming Guide.
Having learnt Cocoa myself in the last year (and spent some time trawling the internet for tutorials like you're doing), I found there's really no substitute for getting your hands on one good introductionary book. It might cost something, but the time it'll save you will be worth it. Most of what I found online was either far too brief, outdated, or went into too much depth. In general, Apple's tutorials fall into the last category. Better for improving your existing understanding rather than learning it for the first time
Working through a few tutorials structured so that each builds on the last will get you to a stage where you can dive in and understand Apple's docs and the more in-depth tutorials. Instead of learning what everything does in unnecessary detail, you'll get the broad outline that helps the rest make sense.
I found this one extremely helpful:
http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Cocoa-Mac-Jack-Nutting/dp/1430218592
If you're going to go it alone, it helps to know where to start. I'd suggest learning in roughly this order:
Basic structure of a cocoa application (what an application delegate is, and the methods you can implement to make stuff happen on load/quit/etc).
Get a feel for how the more simple controls you can add in IB work. Learn about actions and IB Outlets.
Cocoa Bindings. You'll learn a lot of Cocoa's more distinctive concepts, like KVO and KVC in the process of learning this.
If you're interested in ever saving/loading data, or having undo support, Core Data is definitely worth learning.
... and then you've probably got enough of a grounding to choose where to go next.
Have fun!
Cococa Dev Central is quite good for beginner.
This is a good starting point IMHO
Programming Mac OS X with Cocoa for Beginners

I want a beautiful custom window for my first cocoa app [closed]

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I'm a graphic designer - turned web designer - turned web developer - who is currently trying to turn into a mac developer. I've nearly done programming my first app. Is a very, very simple application but I'm happy because I'm learning a lot of new stuff.
The problem is: I don't like how it looks.
As you may guess, design is a very big deal for me, and I think that an app like this, that is very simple, should at least look very good. I'd like to do something like this: http://transmissionapps.com/ a custom window, with custom colors et all.
I Think that I've already went trough half of the internet looking for info, but I didn't found anything I could make sense of. Maybe you can point me in the right direction on how to:
1) Customize the look of my main window
2) Customize the appearance of a table view.
3) Just the same with buttons.
If you know of any sample code, that will be great, I'm becoming obsessed with looking at somebody else's code.
Thanks! (sorry for the long post and the bad english)
What about Drawing a custom window on Mac OS X? Seems like that will get you a custom window to start.
Check out Brandon Walkin's BWToolkit.
http://brandonwalkin.com/bwtoolkit/
It has a bunch of nice looking UI elements for use in IB. It also has source code so you can modify it for your own needs.
Check out Apple's sample application, it may be what your looking for.

Object based image editor for Windows [closed]

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I'm not a designer but I sometimes have to create/edit images for our applications.
In the past I've used "Microsoft Image Composer" - I like its user interface because it's object based and easy to use. Unfortunately it was discontinued and the old version I am using has some problems with png files.
I've tried to find a good replacement but everyone seems to be using layers instead of objects.
Do you know any image editors that are object based?
EDIT:
Still haven't found what I am looking for ... the best alternative so far is Paint.NET even though it uses layers.
Have you tried Illustrator? As a vector graphics app it might not be exactly "object based", but you work with independent shapes instead of pixel layers.
Inkscape http://www.inkscape.org/ is a free alternative. I haven't tried it, but it seems like a winner.
Sticking to what's likely to already be on your machine, both PowerPoint and Visio are object oriented (but crude) image editors.
I guess no such software exists. That's a pity because I found that UI much better than the layer model.

Recommended face detection tools/SDK/etc [closed]

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I'm looking for a quick way to detect faces in pictures (stored as JPG or any other popular image format). Code in any popular programming language will do (Python, C#, Java, Matlab, etc.). I'm also willing to implement an algorithm by myself, as long as it is proven to be a good working one.
Alternatively, if there are known freeware (preferably open, but not necessary) tools or SDKs for the problem, I'll try them too.
Finally, Commercial products would be considered as well, if all else fails, so recommend those too.
OpenCV is a open source library that has support for face recognition.
Emgu.CV is a C# wrapper for OpenCV. There is a sample project that performs face recognition with adjsutable parameters just like in OpenCV.
Take a look at these guys, I've used this once partially for a project.
http://ayonix.com/en/products/software/ayofa.html
I wrote about resources and example code for face classification in this post.
If you want a quick way to do face recognition look at the example code for face recognition in OpenCV for Python or C++ here.
There is also a Matlab code that I found very useful and is ready to run with a single click right here

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