GE Picture Perfect v3.0

General Electric has a history of almost never hiring outside contractors. However, due to Fluid's (and my own) work on the Avery Photo ID System, GE's Security Division wanted us to redesign the third version of their flagship facility security software product, Picture Perfect.

Picture Perfect manages security options, access control, and emergency systems for installations and enterprise-class facilties; it controls everything from security badges to whether or not elevators are operating. It was built in Java, with what could possibly be the world's worst UI ever conceived...which was a significant challenge, since software that can control everything from door access to elevator control is incredibly complex as it is. If a user of Picture Perfect did not understand the software, lives were quite literally in the balance.

Luckily, the client knew it and hired someone to help.

My job was to assess the existing look and feel, learn everything I could about Java 1.4.2 and its Swing components library, and get to work on a new redesign. Clarity was job one, but there were a host of icon sets that had deep legacy information to convey...after all, the application was over a decade old. Determining what to redesign and what to wholly reconceive was a significant challenge.

In creating a modern, clean user interface for an aging java application, I specified a highly customized Java Look And Feel, specified a complete layout manager for dynamic form elements, and hand-illustrated over 100 individual interface icons.