Ugly UI and icons

[salzbermat]

Hello,

I just tried CoreFTP and like its features and architecture. I would like to introduce CoreFTP to my company - but I'm afraid that my employees will have a hard time working with the program for one reason:
The ugly user interface. They don't explain what they mean, they're different from any standard software (even for standard functions), they're big, yet incomprehensible, they're all sort of blue (in an odd kind of way), so there's no intuitive click, some icons are too large for the button they're on, some column titles are black and left-aligned, some are blue and centered, etc. All in all, it just doesn't look professional at all.
So here's my feature request: provide new - attractive and meaningful icons or give us an option to load external icon files (Opera or PowerArchiver both used to have pathetic standard icons until they gathered enthusiasts who created skins for the tools)

Looking forward to using a both powerful and intuitive FTP program,
Bernd

[ePlanetDesign]

Bernd,

We're certainly open to any and all suggestions. Feel free to provide any graphic examples of what you would like to see or any screenshots of GUI problems you are seeing on your end. If you have any problems using the forums, feel free to send them to feedback@coreftp.com

We'll certainly look into what can be done about the icons.

There are also tutorials here if you hadn't had a chance to view them. They may assist in explaning what functionality buttons represent:
http://www.coreftp.com/doc/

CP

I am in total agreement, I can't introduce this thing to our employees, I'd be a laughing stock.

This one has a decent interface and skinnable:
http://www.inicom.net/pages/en.ffxp-screenshots.php

Another one (only not green):
http://www.softplatz.com/shots/11593-src.png

With such professional features then to look like a 5 year old kid did the graphics.

Sorry about being so blunt.

James
ePlanet Design

[jgood4u]

Bernd,

We're certainly open to any and all suggestions. Feel free to provide any graphic examples of what you would like to see or any screenshots of GUI problems you are seeing on your end. If you have any problems using the forums, feel free to send them to feedback@coreftp.com

We'll certainly look into what can be done about the icons.

Designing ICONs are an important function. There are specialized companies and consultants that just to do a good job of that. Don't leave it to change or some program's ideas. Programmers can be the worst designers of user interfaces. Did you know there is a whole socitey dedicated to the human-user interface? For starters, Core should look at a number of the competitive products, including related products like Firefox to get a feel for what is more like common practice. For example, look at the Firefox refresh icon and compare it to your wimpy circle of 2 arrows, which I've had a very difficult time pointing out to users over the phone by description. However I describe it, they just can't see it. It might also help if you color coded the backgrounds of the different toolbar fields so I could tell someone to look in green or yellow box, since the icons are duplicated on both sides. Users I work with may have no real idea what this program does at all, and are only following simple instructions, often given over the phone.

The two little blue and red arrows to indicate connect or disconnect are not recognized as arrows by users either, not to mention they have no intuitive idea what them might do.

I have noticed the the new release of 2.0 has now removed the shadow box around the individual icons in their resting state. That's even less helpful as I can't tell some one "its the 3rd icon box from the left"

Bernd,
There are also tutorials here if you hadn't had a chance to view them. They may assist in explaining what functionality buttons represent:
http://www.coreftp.com/doc/

CP

The reality is this just isn't going to happen when a user is told to get your program, install it and use it for the good of the company they are working or is supporting their efforts, or for or someone else.

Coreftp is a nice program overall and works dependably, and doesn't come with crap attached like browser add-ons or Trojan horses. That's why I recommend it to my customers and users.

The one improvement I'd like besides the icons, is to have the sysop's message pop-up in a "big" box so the user can't miss that we are trying to tell them something important about what they are doing or need to do.

Thanks for being concerned.

[ahujagroup]

Hmmm. Well, Ill give that a looksee. Are you basically saying that Filezillas folder icons arent part of the OS icon set and iconcache, which Ive tried deleting several times?
p.s.
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[jamanderson245]

I agree completely, but I did one more thing noteworthy, I emailed some Icon samples I would like to see used in the program, from royalty free High Quality sets, so I can only hope they are used wisely.

[Jeammaemisy]

Not to ignore what you just said, but using pragma should work. I suggest reinstalling IE. Have you tried the form on multiple computers? I had a problem very similar to that of yours. It was an error in IE that was ignoring the pragma and cache functions.

[Vincent]

I am a professional graphic designer, and I would be more than happy to design a new GUI for CoreFTP. I love the program, but I too would like it to look nicer.