Avogadro
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2021-09-08
icon design, interaction design, branding
Icons, Interaction Design

At minimum, a set of icons and optionally an interaction / interface review document. If everything works out, we certainly have other tasks to consider (website design, etc.)

paid

  • Geoff Hutchison (lead dev) geoff.hutchison@gmail.com

  • Current screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/nLRiwKp Example updates: https://imgur.com/a/eZx7J5m Version 1 homepage: https://avogadro.cc Version 2 beta: https://two.avogadro.cc

    Main GitHub repo: https://github.com/openchemistry/avogadrolibs

Avogadro is a leading 3D molecular design and visualization tool, downloaded over 1 million times. As coders and scientists, we need help with icon design and UI / UX as we finish Avogadro 2.0

Our biggest need is for toolbar icons. Beyond the standard “New,” “Open,” “Save,” “Export,” etc. we’re a 3D modeling tool and chemistry set. We need to clearly illustrate in 32x32 or 64x64 icons:

  • Navigate (translate, rotate, spin)
  • Draw (freeform molecular sketch)
  • Template (insert molecule fragments)
  • Select (e.g., rubber band rectangle)
  • Manipulate (e.g., pull and push atoms and selections around)
  • Bond / Angle Manipulate (e.g., tweak lengths and angles rather than move in 3D cartesian coordinates)
  • Measure (e.g., click on atoms to measure distances, angles, etc.)
  • Animate (e.g., show a molecular movie / dynamics)
  • Align (e.g., set the molecule along the X / Y / Z axis)
  • Auto Optimize (e.g., let the computer find a low energy geometry)
  • Auto Rotate (e.g., spin the molecule for presentations)

In short, we share some concepts with Blender and CAD programs, but have our own set of tools and needs. Some chemistry experience is probably helpful, but not required. We’ve used our programs with high school and college students and it should be intuitive and fun to use.

Beyond icon design, we’d love some discussion about UI / UX and interaction. We want to strike a balance between “any student can use it” and “plenty of features for experts.” For example a computer graphics student contributed new “layer” features as part of Google Summer of Code and it was eye-opening. They could be used to simplify a lot of tasks – so now we’re wondering what else could improve our experience.