How to Design Computer Applications
Organization is one of the most important virtues of any programmer. Creating a program from scratch demands that you make a layout of how the program will work and how the interface (graphical or not) will interact harmoniously with the functions you write and call. The best way to get an idea of how to design a program is to take a look at a program that you learned to use very easily and prefer using very much above others of its nature.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Write down a layout for your graphical user interface showing all the buttons, labels, text boxes, menus and other controls you want to use. Ponder what would make users most easily access what they would want.
-
2
Number each of the controls on your windows and get out a separate piece of paper to write down a numbered and bulleted list of control events that you will need to handle, and how you will handle them. Let's say you have a button and that button is control 2. You can write:
2: Click Event: Pop up "Export" window.
-
-
3
Begin coding your program, giving close attention to the basic layout you wrote. Do not worry about fixing small bugs yet, until you are done with the "skeleton" of your application. Just focus on making the program work.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
When designing the graphical interface, remember to include a "Help" menu for the user. Also, remember to include an "About" item in the help menu that will show a small window describing your program and showing the current version. Some users want to know this in order to compare your version to newer versions of the program.
Try not to get overexcited about adding new features. Concentrating attention on adding features to one part of the program and leaving the rest of it dull can make for a negative user experience.
