I've been working on an alternative launcher to a game I love, and would like to get your opinion on its design. you can veiw the thread it is available on here, or download it directly here.

The pixelated bitmap can be changed out easily (and I plan on it), that was just a quick skin for layout design.
Do you have any screenshots or videos of the launcher in action for those Cemetechians either unwilling or unable to install and test it directly?

I don't mind the text boxes really, but they could use a bit of padding on the sides. Also, the black box on the bottom could be changed and the continue button font looks a little odd. Also, I cannot quit the program! It doesn't let me exit without selecting a file that doesn't exist on my computer. But hey; if it works it works Smile Keep up the good job; computer side programming is fun Smile
Ill make a video later today, Kerm.

Ouch! Suppose ill throw some exception handle there for if the user cancels the program; thanks, Mateo! Also, the font shouldn't look like that at all. Suppose Ill look into that...
Hmm, looking from the screenshot, you need to conform to basic UX. I can't even tell what this program is even supposed to do apart from the fact that it says "Pre-Launcher" (actually, what is a pre-launcher? This program isn't telling me what it's doing).

Don't add unnecessary space. The best way to do this is by keeping everything the right scale; i.e. don't make the Continue button too big. Instead, change it to the height of the text box, and make the text box fill its horizontal row (no spaces on the left or right of it).

Place the progress bar close to the source of action. The fact that the progress bar is at the top of the window, whereas the Continue button is at the bottom, implies that the progress bar doesn't represent the progress of the action being taken when you press the "Continue" button. The solution is to make it appear right above the text box and Continue button; however, that would pose a problem as the bottom of the text box would be blocked by the progress bar.

The bottom log doesn't really explain its purpose and should be removed or confined to a log file of some sort.

Also, never prompt the user something over and over. If a user canceled something unexpectedly at a critical step, give them a dialog to allow them to either try again or abort the action and close the program.
Kay, I worked on it a bit, but I didnt finish fixing things that were found. but Ill answer some of your concerns!

This screen that Mateo got stuck at? Its just an initialisation screen; once im sure everything works properly, this will be hidden from the user. so, its debugging purposes only, to a degree.

Ive scaled the button back to 32 pixels (everything in my program tries to conform to "every 16/32 pixels" for width and height of an object), and added some padding around the objects themselves, too.

I've moved the progress bar. done.

the bottom log file is actually the settings of the pre-launcher; again, this is only visible to make sure I dont hit some endless loop because I messed something up here, either. It wont even be present later on.

as for prompting the user repeatedly, it doesnt prompt you at all anymore at this phase. instead, it notes that it couldnt locate something, and will ask you for its location (once) when you try to launch it. you can cancel, and it will just go back to waiting for further input. below that will be a button that downloads the application for you; thats the part I was working on when I got tired and quit.


also, to define pre-launcher for you: its another way to launch a program outside of using the standard launcher. You know how many MMOs have launchers that tell you the recent news while updating your program? well, VO's is kinda ugly, so I decided to make an alternative for when you dont have to update. and if you DO need to update, that download&install button will launch the basic launcher for you instead, if it HAS detected VO on your system. or, it will.
  
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