Improving application usability interfaces and experience (UI/UX)

Bentley’s User Experience (UX) team is looking for the end-users just like you to participate in usability studies. These are not product demos, but rather opportunities for you to use the software and provide feedback that then gets passed on to development teams.

Read more about the program and sign up here: https://www.bentley.com/en/usability-testing

When there is a match between your profile and an upcoming usability study, the User Experience team will contact you. From there, an interactive session is scheduled where you will be asked to provide feedback on new product features or improved workflows.

Help shape the experience of the products you use!

Dark Theme

MicroStation Application Dark Theme UI Design Considerations

• MicroStation CONNECT Update 15 and later provide a Dark Mode (Dark Theme) user preference.
• Application Developers are encouraged to:
  • Define Dialog .R Icons as .ICO files to more easily support Dark Theme mode
  • Convert Gray scale icons to colorized to help ensure consistency and blend in
• Applications can determine if Dark Theme is enabled by checking the user preference access string, like this MicroStation VBA Code Snip
  

  Sub QuickTest()
  
     DisplayCExpression "userPrefsP->flags.useDarkTheme"
  
  End Sub
  
  Function DisplayCExpression(expression As String) As Variant
  
     Dim result
     result = GetCExpressionValue(expression)
     Debug.Print expression & " = " & result
     DisplayCExpression = result
  
  End Function

  :

• At this time MicroStation does not provide additional Dark Theme APIs due to MicroStation Dark Theme UI Design requirements to integrate with multiple host operating systems and respective application design and customization capabilities. To confirm any additional updates on this topic make sure to review any new MicroStation CONNECT SDK Announcements, or searching the SDK includes, using either:
  

  C:\Program Files\Bentley\MicroStationCONNECTSDK\include>s dark * | findstr -i theme
  Mstn\MdlApi\userpref.r.h:167:    unsigned        useDarkTheme : 1;
  
  OR,
  
  C:\Program Files\Bentley\MicroStationCONNECTSDK\bin>qs dark.*theme
  
  C:\Program Files\Bentley\MicroStationCONNECTSDK\bin>findstr.exe -snipra:1E "dark.*theme" "C:\Program Files\Bentley\MicroStationCONNECTSDK\examples\*"
  
  C:\Program Files\Bentley\MicroStationCONNECTSDK\bin>findstr.exe -snipra:1E "dark.*theme" "C:\Program Files\Bentley\MicroStationCONNECTSDK\include\*"
  C:\Program Files\Bentley\MicroStationCONNECTSDK\include\Mstn\MdlApi\userpref.r.h:167:    unsigned        useDarkTheme : 1;
  
  C:\Program Files\Bentley\MicroStationCONNECTSDK\bin>findstr.exe -snipra:1E "dark.*theme" "C:\Program Files\Bentley\MicroStationCONNECTSDK\MigrationTools\*"
  
  C:\Program Files\Bentley\MicroStationCONNECTSDK\bin>findstr.exe -snipra:1E "dark.*theme" ".\*"
  
  C:\Program Files\Bentley\MicroStationCONNECTSDK\bin>

• Bentley's UI/UX for MicroStation's Dark Theme builds upon the popular Apple and Microsoft UI Design guidelines (color and icons) and best practices related to designing for dark mode (and other high contrast) "themes"; that users may choose to modify/customize further. Apple suggests using a contrast ratio between 7:1 and 4.5:1.