The Simple Cursor
The Simple Cursor is the most basic of all cursor controls and consists of 5 buttons representing up, down, left, right, and select. Each button can have a different image for inactive and active states totaling 10 images. A separate background image can also be incorporated. This works well on simple designs that incorporate oversized controls since the active states are otherwise obscured by the user’s finger.

The Multi-Mode Cursor
The Multi-Mode Cursor unfortunately doesn’t work across all platforms, but where it works, it works very well. This cursor is made up of a single image representing the entire inactive state, and 5 images representing up, down, left, right, and select. This requires only 6 images in total, each displaying the entire cursor control in its respective state. Transparent buttons are placed over the desired hot spots to activate each function. Since only one image for each state is shown at any one time, the appearance of the entire cursor can be altered with each touch — note the green light being cast across the center of the cursor from the top.

The 9-Square Grid Cursor
The 9-Square Grid Cursor divides its bounding area into a 3×3 matrix. The four corners are fillers designed to give the cursor a unibody appearance. The remaining 5 squares make up the touchable hot spots and can utilize additional images for active states. The 9-Square Grid Cursor is compatible with all platforms and generally looks better than the Simple Cursor, but shares the same issue of its active states being obscured when touched. Its active states also falls short of the Multi-Mode Cursor in terms of potential eye-candy. Adaptation and Insight maximize the capabilities of the 9-Square Grid Cursor.

The Guifx Perimeter Cursor
Our latest innovation is the Guifx Perimeter Cursor which takes the best attributes of our preceding cursor styles and combines them into a single, elegant design. The touchable hot spots work the same as with the 9-Square Grid Cursor, but each row and column around the perimeter of the bounding area are capable of displaying full active states similar to those previously only possible with the Multi-Mode Cursor. But unlike the Multi-Mode Cursor, the Guifx Perimeter Cursor works across all platforms. You’ll find the Guifx Perimeter Cursor implemented in Meta, S3, and many more Guifx designs to come.

What’s next for the touch panel cursor? Oh believe me, we’re already working on it

Uiology™ is our study of user interfaces. In this series we will analyze and document solutions to the GUI, the bad, and the ugly — seeking to raise the bar for the industry we know and love. Drop your thoughts and suggestions in the comments.

Adaptation has been in the works for over 2 years now. It’s been a personal project of mine, working on it here and there until we made it a focus a few months ago. We had shown it in its infancy a couple years back and since then the style has been recreated a few times over. But make no mistake, this is the original.

Original it may be, but we sure didn’t keep things exactly the way they used to be. We’ve given it a big update for 2008. I took the time and recreated all the graphics, added tons of color and we’ve included a wide selection of page layouts, alerts, and menus. After all the time and effort we all here at Guifx have put into this template we’re all really proud to share it with you. Thanks and I hope you like it as much as we do.

The other day I bought an Apple TV (what a cool device btw). So, I went to add a “Watch Apple TV” activity to my RTI T4 in my living room. I’m using Meta with the built-in RTI icons (which happen to be Aero), but I wanted an Apple TV specific icon. So I looked around on the internet, but I didn’t find a good one. So, with me being a graphic designer and all, I decided to make one myself.

But I got a little carried away (as usual, right Morgan ), and I ended up making an entire set of Apple TV icons! And with our snazzy new “Insider” section I have a great way to share them with you. There’s 6 icons in all. All sized at a huge 512×512 resolution (see example) with full PNG transparency. If you need to resize, use CoPilot.

Enjoy! And be sure to comment and let us know if you like this kind of stuff and we’ll try to keep it coming for you.

Download all 6 Apple TV Icons (512×512, PNG):

There’s a lot going on behind the scenes here at Guifx. So, we decided to create an outlet for all of our employees to share anything interesting with you that they might be working on (be it graphics, code, or just ideas), no matter how rough or unfinished.

So, welcome to the “inside” of Guifx. Please, don’t mind the mess.