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by koolraap 489 days ago
Why are there no images of a GUI app on its home or GitHub page?

https://xanasoft.com/TaskExplorer/ https://github.com/davidxanatos

4 comments

Well, that explains why the project page doesn't include any screenshots!
Maybe HN ruined me, but I'd prefer a UI that isn't very pretty but information-dense, especially for a use case like this, and especially when the alternative is whitespace/tabs-galore in order to make data more spread out.

That said, it is ugly, like most Windows utilities tend to be.

There's still a difference between functional, information-dense design and a missing sense of design or care.

An interface displaying a lot of information, and ways to manipulate data can be functional and information-dense if there's thought put into how to do the layout, usage of colors, icons and other factors (Thinking about power user tools like Logic, Video cutting software, internal company tools or POS software that is used by many, all the time). It might not necessarily look "clean" and beautiful to the uninitiated but it gets the work done effectively.

Don't agree. It's just as complex (may be a bit more) as ProcessMonitor by Sysinternals https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/pro...

It's dense, doesn't mean its bad.

It has a real odd mix of 2000, 2003 (ribbon bar) and 1995 (process hacker area) theme elements going on there.
I'm still of the opinion that hacker-built GUI tools have their own kind of beauty in the way a specialized and intricate woodworking tool might. Nobody shies away from showing some impenetrable command-line doodad with bad ASCII art, why not the equivalent for GUI tools who's audience is the equivalent of your average bash-bro?
Sure, it's largely subjective, but whatever's going on in that "File" panel in the bottom right looks downright unusable.
I was about to ask the same thing. It should be studied at this point, it happens so often.
Whenever a project fails to do that, I just assume they built it for themselves and don't really want other users.
that kind of things drive me crazy, a few well curated pic would tell us so much more than walls after walls of texts...