Home
>
Software
>
Professional Software Icons For Your Standalone Application

town car ride to ohare Marengo Park Ridge taxi to Midway Naperville south of 95 limo Midway Lincoln Stretch limo rentals Deerfield travel from O'Hare Carpentersville .. Drug testing

Professional Software Icons For Your Standalone Application

User interfaces and accessibility are some of the most important aspect of an application. It can have a million features, it can do a thousand things once, but if it doesn't look quite right then it will be a disaster. Take Linux for example. This open source (free) operating system has been around for quite a while, and it has been very appreciated for its stability and speed. However, in its earlier days it lacked a user interface, which made it very unattractive to the general public. While a few years back Linux was used only by system administrator and computer freaks, Microsoft's Windows was all over the place, pumped up by its friendly user interface, even though it had a lot of bugs and was very unstable. Today's things are quite different. People have learned from their mistakes and now, most operating systems, including Linux, use a graphical interface and are very user-friendly - things that in the past you could do by writing lines and lines of instructions, you can now do with a few clicks. This major improvement has brought in a whole new class of users, and the popularity of this operating system has increased considerably.

This is why the user interface matters a lot to the average computer user, and icons are one of the most important issues at matter. But why use icons and not plain text? Well, icons are visual mnemonics, that is, they are easier to remember. We see an icon a few times (or maybe once) and we "learn" it, and afterwords we associate the image with a certain action. The same thing happens with text, but it's a lot faster to "read" an icon than it is to read a text, which makes icons a lot more recommended. Furthermore, adding icons to the important components of your application will sometimes save you from the frustration of answering the users who are not very familiar with the application and have trouble finding out how to use a certain feature. For example adding a question mark icon next inside the help button will make it easier for users to figure out where they can get help.

Today's developers know that users will learn how to use a certain application a lot faster if its interface looks like the applications they are already familiar with. Take for example a Mac: can you see how all applications look pretty much the same? So it's really easy to start using new applications, and you don't have to read the manual to see what each button does, because most likely you'll figure out that on your own. But there are two sides to this: if all applications look more or less the same, where is the uniqueness? Then again, if the application is totally unique, users might find it difficult to get acquainted with. So the best way to go is to use an interface that combines both these rules - not an "average" looking user interface, but also not a totally unique one. It's easy to get stuck with this idea, but this is where icons come in.

Icons are the easiest way to differentiate your application, while still keeping a note of familiarity. Most developers have found it very efficient to replace the operating system's stock icons with their own custom-made icons. How? Well, start with the little things. Try adding shadows to icons, or maybe apply different effects (emboss, blur, add a border, etc.) using a graphics editor. Another approach is to change the icon's colors. Make them all blue, yellow, or some other color you might think it would look great with the rest of the interface. A toolbar with enhanced, yet similar buttons (for example replacing the New, Open, Save, Print, Cut, Copy, Paste icons) really improves the overall interface. After replacing the icons, it's a lot easier to make the next step and start changing colors.

But what to do with these old-fashioned users that like to keep it simple? How about people with special needs, who might have problems reading small texts or seeing some colors. Also, there must be a way for all the people - and it's really a mystery here - who like the same old icons and colors on all their applications. Fortunately, the answer is simple: different application skins! It's a good idea to have a "standard" skin for the users who like to keep it simple, offering the basic features in a really easy to use manner, and then to create a few more enhanced skins for the people that like different interfaces - big fat buttons with shiny icons for the main applications features, or perhaps lots of toolbars with many buttons for advanced users. Again, the easiest way to creating new skins is changing the icons and colors. You don't really have to change the layout of the application and move all the toolbars/buttons/windows around, for it might require sometimes too much work. But replacing icons is really easy. Voila! You have a new skin!

Today's computer applications are focusing more and more on graphics, and especially icons, while text interfaces are becoming less popular. The modern applications' interfaces use icons and text as well, but paying a special attention to icons. This way it's a lot easier for users to learn how the application works, so therefore they will accomplish their tasks quickly. An intuitive interface and standard behaviors don't require much explanation, and a well-designed application must not get into the user's way, but must provide fast access to its most important features. This is the general rule which brought Microsoft millions and millions of dollars for it's main product - the Windows operating system - so why shouldn't we follow their example?

If you are looking for professional icons please go to http: http://www.iconshock.com - icon design

limousine chicago service

In The News:

Now that Google has gotten permission from China's Anti-Monopoly Bureau to acquire Motorola Mobility, the companies are expected to complete their merger by the middle of this week.

IT management executives from large corporations worry most about how to manage employee-owned devices safely and securely, according to clients of the Directions on Microsoft analyst firm.

Silver Peak today upgraded the software for its WAN appliance to handle automated optimization for TCP and non-TCP traffic, 512,000 simultaneous connections for 10 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) infrastructures and support for a bunch of common hypervisors.

IT managers grappling with bring-your-own-device policies can expect to see an explosion in the number of smartphones and tablets used by employees.

The big cable companies know that if they want to stay relevant in the wireless market, they can't do it on their own.

Version 3.4 of the Linux kernel was officially rolled out Sunday, in what maintainer Linus Torvalds called a "calm" release cycle.

Google has "a matter of weeks" to address four antitrust issues identified by European Union antitrust regulators. If Google addresses these issues the case can be solved by a so-called "commitment decision" instead of formal antitrust proceedings resulting in a fine, said JoaquAn Almunia, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Competition Policy.

Yahoo has agreed to sell off about half of its stake in Alibaba Group back to the Chinese e-commerce giant as part of a US$7.1 billion deal, the two companies jointly announced on Monday.

If the numbers at StatCounter are accurate then the world has a new Web browser champion: Google Chrome.

The chief of AT&T Mobility can't wait for Windows 8 tablets to hit the market because they'll fuel demand for Windows phones.

IBM is offering employees who are nearing retirement a one-time opportunity to take advantage of a program that would guarantee their employment through Dec. 31, 2013.

Europe's top court has ruled that the functionality of a computer program and the programming language it is written in cannot be protected by copyright.

Your boss wants it yesterday, but it better be good when judged by the standards of tomorrow. Your customers want every feature they can imagine, but don't you dare confuse them by giving them all the buttons they want. Your fellow programmers want your code documented, but they just respond "tl;dr" to anything you write.

After all the attention, clamor, and expectations Facebook is now a publicly traded company worth $104 billion. With shares trading at a hundred times earnings, Facebook is under a lot of pressure to increase the profit that it brings in. In other words, now the fun begins.

Microsoft is abandoning the 'Aero' user interface with Windows 8, calling the UI that debuted in Vista and continued in Windows 7, 'cheesy' and 'dated.'

Company claims system requirements will be the same as those of Visual Studio 2010 despite performance increases

The NFL has big stadiums, big players and big games, but when it comes to computer systems, the league's vice president of IT doesn't use the word big.

Despite interoperability trials and demonstrations involving alternative data center fabric standards, a non-standard fabric technology is said by proponents to be at the front of the pack.

Taiwanese smartphone vendor High Tech Computer said on Sunday certain models of its newest smartphones have passed U.S. Customs and are being released to its carrier customers, after the company previously warned of a delay in product shipments because of an International Trade Commission (ITC) order.

So.cl, an experimental research project from Microsoft, that combines social networking and search to promote learning, is now accepting all users interested in joining the site.

Email managers have a lot at stake. After all, the volume of global electronic messages sent via email dwarfs all other forms of electronic communication, including social networking. Since the inception of electronic mail, which, according to some Internet historians, can be traced to a small mainframe app called 'MAILBOX' from the mid-1960s, human-to-human messages have been created, transmitted and stored in electronic format. But early email administrators could hardly have envisioned the complexity of current email infrastructure and the concomitant maze of technical, security, business and regulatory challenges.

Pakistan late Sunday reversed a block on Twitter in the country over material it considered anti-Islam, the country's interior minister said.

Technical problems at the Nasdaq exchange affected the trading of Facebook shares on Friday, the much-anticipated day of its IPO (initial public offering), Robert Greifeld, chief executive of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., told reporters on Sunday, according to published reports.

Chinese regulatory authorities have approved Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility, paving the way for the deal to close within the week, company officials confirmed Saturday.

In the latest move in a complex series of patent-related cases, Apple filed a motion in a U.S. district court late Friday to ban Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the U.S.

Apple's plans for a Bluetooth 4.0-based iWallet could be the beginning of the end for the venerable cash register.

An Italian court has upheld a a!900,000 (US$1.2 million) fine imposed on Apple by Italy's competition authority for allegedly violating consumer protection laws, Italian media reported late Friday.

The mobile gift-giving app Karma announced Friday it has been acquired by Facebook. The announcement came shortly after the markets closed on Facebook's first day as a publicly traded company.

The U.S. International Trade Commission issued an import ban Friday on any Android devices from Motorola that infringe one of Microsoft's patents.

The prospect of cyberwar means the U.S. needs to 'rethink every aspect of defense,' says one summit presenter

At any given moment today, on-the-clock employees are updating their social media status, reading feeds and networking on business media sites. Moments can stretch to minutes: A recent study by the Ponemon Institute found that 60 percent of social media users spend at least 30 minutes a day on these sites while at work.

HP is expected to announce a large layoff at its quarterly investors briefing on Wednesday, losing as many as 30,000 employees. But for now, the company isn't talking about its plans.

How well do you know the $100 billion social network? From private planes to petabytes, here are some of the most surprising Facebook tidbits.

Given the complexity of today's applications, it's folly to suggest that the future role of the CIO is less technical and more businesslike, columnist Bernard Golden writes. If anything, it's the opposite -- the business side of the enterprise should embrace technology.

Twitter has announced support for "Do Not Track," immediately implementing it to halt online tracking of users who trigger a setting in their browsers.

The first hours of Facebook's IPO got off to a shaky start today with the share price wavering around the $40 mark, never gaining the astronomical momentum many had anticipated.

Fully 95% of 600 businesses surveyed by Cisco permit the use of employee-owned smartphones and tablets at the office and found productivity gains for workers who use their own hardware.

Perhaps the Next iPhone won't be called iPhone 5 but the Zombie iPhone, in honor of the new spate of rumors that the late Steve Jobs is still with us in a sense, as the chief designer of the upcoming handset.

The company has now set things straight again and all content on the iTunes Store a including music and apps a now displays the word "jailbreak".

Symantec originally thought that at its peek the Flashback Trojan was generating around $10,000 a day by hijacking ad clicks. Now, new research suggests the developers may only have earned $14,000 during the time that the malware was active.

A hacker who claims to hate both Anonymous and notorious file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has claimed responsibility for the DDoS attack that the bittorent website has been suffering for the last 24 hours.

When Windows 8 comes out later this year, the new Start screen and Metro-style apps will likely be the first changes you'll notice, but those aren't the only things that are new. Microsoft is also making some serious security enhancements to help keep your system safer and to improve Windows' ability to combat viruses and malware. It just may be the biggest improvement to Windows security yet.

Three winners of an academic competition at the University of Rochester to create the most innovative and useful applications for IBM's Watson cognitive computing systems were announced yesterday by Big Blue.

Facebook's initial public offering, or IPO, hits Wall Street Friday, and is one of the most highly anticipated tech stock offerings of the past decade. Everyone, it seems, wants to be in on the action. And it's possible to do so--after the big boys get their hands on it first.

'If the product is free, you are the product.'

Conmen in Manchester have been selling bottles of water, cans of Coke, and even potatoes under the pretence that they are iPhones.

HP is looking to cut at least 25,000 jobs in a bid to reduce costs and return to growth, according to media reports.

Adoption of Android tablets and smartphones in large businesses has been "severely limited" because of the complexities of managing the various Android models and versions, market research firm Gartner said in an evaluation of 20 mobile device management software vendors.

Cisco's Wireless Networking Business Unit doesn't actually talk so much about wireless networking these days. Increasingly, its message aimed at IT groups is about the broader concept of "mobility."

Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday announced the OfficeJet 150 Mobile All-in-One portable printer, which the company called the world's first mobile multifunction device that can "print, copy and scan on the go."

Despite the rumors, developers are focused on making apps -- and money -- from today's Android

Apple is in talks with China Mobile, according to the carrier's chairman Xi Guohua, although an agreement is yet to be reached.

The question of whether CISPA is really necessary might arise in the wake of a Department of Defense announcement last week that as many as 1,000 defense contractors -- and possibly thousands more -- may voluntarily join an expanded program of sharing classified information on cyber threats with the federal government.

If you're a Verizon customer upset that your next smartphone contract won't include unlimited data, Sprint would like to remind you that you have an alternative.

In retaliation against Internet Service Providers (ISPs) blocking some video-sharing and torrent websites like The Pirate Bay under Indian court orders, Anonymous, the "hacktivist" organization, today took down the websites of the ruling Congress Party and the Supreme Court of India. Anonymous, which in the past has been credited with taking down the websites of the MPAA, RIAA, the FBI, the US Department of Justice and child pornographers, took down these sites in what is understood to be DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks.

The University of Kentucky says it has reshaped its business intelligence capability by adopting SAP's in-memory system, HANA.

The head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office tells a congressional panel that the landmark reform bill signed last September is already yielding significant results, but defends litigation in tech sector as a sign of vigorous innovation.

If you haven't developed a corporate Bring Your Own Device policy, or if the one you have is out of date, these tips will help you address device security, IT service, application use and other key components of an effective BYOD policy.

With Facebook's long-anticipated IPO expected to hit on Friday morning, the company set its initial share price at $38 today.

The hackers in charge of the Flashback botnet managed to generate $14,000 from their click fraud campaign, but have not been paid, Symantec said today.

The specification for next-generation mobile DRAM was published, offering smartphone, tablet and ultra-thin notebook makers a 50% increase in memory performance.

Ultrabooks are sleek, super-thin laptops that often feature a silver, wedge or tapering design--yes, just like the Apple MacBook Air.

More than half of US businesses still rely on conventional firewalls or intrusion prevention systems to shield themselves from the scourge of DDoS attacks, a survey by services firm Neustar has found.

Researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan claim to have broken the record for wireless data transmission in the Terahertz band with a data rate 20 times higher than most current Wi-Fi connections.

On the surface, Google's Knowledge Graph seems like just another search feature, but connect the dots and it could become the brains behind a Siri-like virtual assistant.

T-Mobile USA will debut 4 'No Annual Contract' data service plans on Sunday, while Verizon plans to kill unlimited data plans as users shift to 4G

Car giant General Motors has confirmed it will stop advertising on Facebook, after deciding that paid ads on the site have little impact on consumers' car purchases.

Mobile malware stepped up an order of magnitude in volume and sophistication during 2011 and this trend has continued in the first quarter of 2012, according to F-Secure's latest quarterly report.

Spiceworks, the social business platform for IT professionals, has announced that it now has 2 million users, representing nearly 30 percent of all IT pros at small and medium-sized businesses worldwide.

Such activity is often paid for, or sanctioned by, government agencies

AT&T Thursday launched its 4G LTE service in, New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Naples, Fla., today, which extends its high-speed network implementations to 38 markets.

Unless Microsoft allows other browser makers to call important APIs in Windows RT, it's "probably not worth it to even bother" building a version of Firefox for the new OS, a Mozilla product director said.

Felix Ehm, a member of CERN's beams control group, has always had a curious and scientific bent.

Doctors are being cautioned by hospitals they work with to avoid interacting with patients on social media, and that they reject any overtures by patients to interact on the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

With Facebook's initial public offering creating such a frenzy of interest, there's an important question to be considered: What happens if tomorrow or next week or five months from now, this investment goes south?

Comcast is trying out more flexible ways to implement its bandwidth caps by experimenting with tiered service options.

Apple historically has fought iPhone jailbreaking by warning customers that their device warranties will be voided if they muck around with the innards of their Apple products. Now Apple appears to be taking its disapproval of jailbreaking one step further by censoring at least some references to "jailbreak" in its U.S. iTunes store.

Zach Nelson, chief executive at NetSuite, has publicly thanked rival SAP for renewing a cloud computing license with his company, instead of using its own software.

A man from West Sussex has been sent to jail for 12 months after hacking into a private Facebook account.

Apple has apparently won control of the iphone5.com domain, according to changes in a Web record of the URL.

SSD maker RunCore's InVincible SSD can wipe your data using one of two methods: overwriting the entire disk with meaningless code or frying it with voltage.

Social media -- Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and so forth -- has become a way of life for companies and their employees to interact with the public, but beating back the fraudsters that try to prey on customers, not to mention keeping employees from spilling sensitive data, is becoming a full-time job for many.

The next iPhone, which may or not be called iPhone 5, will have a 4-inch screen according to several unidentified sources cited in news stories this week.

Growth in the Ethernet switch market is now being driven by specialized devices for specific applications, rather than evenly across all customer deployments.

Actress Geena Davis, President of Argentina Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Huawei Chairman Sun Yafang have been named winners of the 2012 ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award for their efforts promoting information and communications technology (ICT) to empower women and girls.

Apple devices -- ever more popular in the workplace -- are about to become more popular with cyber criminals.

The malware business growing around Google Android -- now the leading smartphone operating system -- is still in its infancy. Today, many of the apps built to steal money from Android users originate from Russia and China, so criminal gangs there have become cyber-trailblazers.

T-Mobile USA clarified its latest restructuring plans and said the changes will result in a net 350 job losses, not 900 as reported earlier.

Cisco announced yesterday three pre-tested bundles of products and services designed to cut through the confusing complexity of enterprise mobility.

Developers have discovered that users running iOS 6 have been accessing their apps.

Professional Software Icons For Your Standalone Application

Software Software