Tag Archives: WinForms

GUI for NetTunnel

Designing the GUI for NetTunnel put my creativity to the test. I’ve never actually designed a GUI before, but I’ve seen and read a lot about GUI design theory, but theory seems to be fairly pointless for this design process. It was interesting for me to try to translate the idea in my head to the controls given in Visual Studios.

My first attempt ended up like this:

Main Window
Main Window
Services Window
Services Window

This is okay, but not great. Most of those elements are static elements that don’t move even if you resize it. It’s certainly not something I’d feel comfortable working with every day. After getting lots and lots of advice from friends, my second and final GUI design ended up like so:

Main Window
Main Window
Services Window
Services Window

A much cleaner and easier to understand layout. Services can be toggled just by clicking on the ‘service’ menu and then clicking on the appropriate service from the drop-down, or they can be toggled within the service window proper. All the most commonly used items in the gui are put in obvious places, while making sure that everything’s just a few clicks away. Everything resizes and can have the size proportions for it changed.

Now that I know how easy it is to create GUIs, I think I might start using them in future projects while retaining a command line version for power users.