I was a salaried programmer new to the job when I was asked to imitate what their previous CAIP had come up with. He has a dashboard, a run time selectable groups page and a page that allowed you to adjust the volume for each room. Kicking and screaming I developed a GUI that did all of this and more from the audio selection page. I had nothing but contempt for it till clients began using it. Suddenly, my contempt turned into fascination as they loved the GUI, even if they could not explain their preference. One of my favorite memories was the salesman on a job insisting on drop down menu GUI. Having perfected that we put in my audio GUI just for party or group control. First time he touched it the client said it blew away his drop down menu GUI and asked why we were using the drop down menus.

A few of you continue to miss the point as you point to gestures, top and bottom menus ( unless you can write source code please reconsider the word "activities." ), and take refuge in one man's ceiling being an other's floor. It's about the design and why Crestron's graphic artist gets it right so often and the rest of you do not. It's about the fact that many dealers have gone to Destiny not merely because it's free but because it contains graphical elements missing in your work. It's visually interesting whereas your collective recent designs are not.

The point is not if you like Yellow Jacket, Adagio Nitrate or Crestron's new Ipad design. It's about one individual understanding something the rest of you continue to ignore with the result that your designs suffer. Slap yourselves on the back, link to each others sites. buy yourselves a pint and go to bed knowing your monochromatic designs are state of the art. It's not about how many new graphics or icons you now incorporate into your latest efforts. It's about examining your a priori assumptions.

It's not about my opinion which is how you've chosen to frame your responses. I know I write clearly. Others participating in this thread have understood it so I'll take your decision to misunderstand it as intentional.

Ignore the facts, if you'd like. The fact is you are all collectively missing something and in the end it will cost you sales. I don't want you guys to develop GUIs. You suck at that. I want you to develop graphical templates that are visually interesting. Even the aesthetically unappealing Yellow Jacket is monochromatic. Nitrate is monochromatic. Take away the backgrounds and the monochromatic iPad graphics are still better visually more interesting than your designs. It's the brilliant use of images, shapes, borders and button types. Sure, it also allows the use of "activity" icons which introduces color. I removed the information header from my edition and it still more interesting than your collective efforts.

Change is hard. Habits of thought, C.S. Pierce has taught, pass for knowledge and we are loathe to break out of the comfort of what is known. I'm not suggesting I'm in love with Adagio Nitrate or Yellow Jacket. I am suggesting they incorporate elements into their design that yours are missing and for which they are poorer. You can continue to produce boring designs. You can continue to miss the point by speaking to gestures and "an Apple experience." It's the absence of shape, texture, depth, and the overuse of the same button types and sizes in these designs.


Vote with your feet. But someone with the graphics suite skills is going to read this, look at what Crestron's graphic artist has accomplished and will get it. He will incorporate those elements into his work and assuming he prices them wisely, he will make a lot of money. Because it has zero to do with resolution, panel size, the type of graphics files, backgrounds or gestures.

Alan