User interface design has to balance a number of competing goals, mainly:

• Functionality
• Responsiveness
• Aesthetics

That was  the case with this project for an in-vehicle data collection system. The interface was a touch screen that requires input from the same person driving the vehicle. It was very important that the interface be simple and easy to understand and fast to work with, to keep the driver's eyes on the road.

We started with a typical LabVIEW interface. It worked, but it was a bit boring. It also suffered from being difficult to see. The gray background did not provide much contrast while day driving.

Here is an easy way to dress up a VI with a background image.

It isn't intuitive or easy to find, but it is simple:

1. Right click on the vertical scrollbar of your VI
2. Select "Properties"
3. Choose your image
4. Consider using a tile-ready image

A good rule to remember when designing a user interface is to do things in standard ways whenever possible.
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For example, if you want to close a program in Windows, you click the X button in the upper right-hand corner of the window. 

​The standard LabVIEW listbox control has very archaic icons. So I made some improvements. You can use this control as a direct replacement for the standard control, but it looks a lot better.

This takes advantage of the properties for the listbox to load your own custom graphics.

Previously, I posted a listbox control with improved icons. Some have asked if it can be used for multicolumn listboxes, too. Well, yes it can. And here it is.
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(Actually, you can just use the listbox control. Right click and select Replace. Replace it with a multicolumn listbox. The new multicolumn box will maintain the improved icons.)