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Topics on Usability: Drawing Hot-Tracking Icons

User interfaces evolve at a previously unseen pace, becoming increasingly more user-interactive. Hot-tracking is one of the latest additions to the GUI interactivity. Hot-tracking is a user interface concept providing a visual effect where elements of user interface such as buttons, menu items etc., react to user interaction. Most commonly, the effect works by highlighting elements of user interface when the mouse is hovering over, allowing the user to get a better idea on what control is active at the moment, showing them precisely where they are over.

Icon Editor

Widely introduced with Microsoft Internet Explorer 3, hot-tracking toolbars quickly found their place in many applications from browsers to Office products. While flat toolbars with hot-tracking enabled sure look more impressive than the older, traditional ones, the usability effect of hot-tracking is more than just looks. Applications with hot-tracking feel more responsive and provide better feedback to the user, providing overall a more pleasant usage experience.

Historically, first hot-tracking enabled applications used monochrome toolbars as 'regular', only displaying a single 'hot' button in color when the mouse cursor was over it. Since then, a more vivid approach to user interfaces prevailed, displaying all toolbar buttons in color, and highlighting a 'hot' button in a slightly different way.

From the designer perspective, there are several types of icons to be drawn, representing the various states of user interface elements. There are normal, disabled and 'hot' versions of each icon to be created.

When designing an application, it is essential to provide all versions of icons for best possible usability. But what if your project has hundreds of images? Do you have to draw each single one of them in all the three states? In a word, yes; but it's not necessary that you do it by hand. There are special design tools aimed at producing all three versions out of a single 'normal' original.

The newest release of IconLover recognizes the need, and makes it possible to automate the process of creating 'hot' versions of icons. The product produces 'hot' versions of icons for hot-tracking completely automatically by applying the Hot effect, thus making it possible for designers to concentrate on designing unique images instead of drowning in technicalities. The effect, as implemented in IconLover, is more realistic and pleasant-looking than any 'hot' version of an icon than the default Windows implementation of hot-tracked items.

A free trial version of IconLover is available for download at www.aha-soft.com

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Business Icons for Vista. A collection of all-purpose icons with various symbols for the business environment for use with your software or on your website.

Vista Toolbar Icons. A collection of practical and eye catching icons representing all basic operations required for surfing the internet or using various applications.

Transport Icons for Vista. A collection of colorful and distinctive icons depicting all transport types for the transport and tourist industries.

Multimedia Icons for Vista. This set of multimedia icons allows you to design software that looks and feels right on standard and High Definition displays in Windows Vista.

Phone Icon Library includes icons that represent typical symbols and actions that are often used in telecommunications development.

IconLover allows you to design and edit all kinds of graphics required in the software development cycle, including icons, static and animated cursors and interface elements - all these graphics can now be designed in a single application.