About the FxPlug Human Interface Guidelines

FxPlug Human Interface Guidelines describes the guidelines and principles that help you design a superlative user interface and user experience for your plug-in. Many of the guidelines and principles described are based on OS X Human Interface Guidelines, a document you should read and familiarize yourself with before implementing your FxPlug plug-in.

This document does not describe how to implement your designs in code. When you’re ready to code, start by reading FxPlug SDK Overview.

At a Glance

FxPlug is a compact yet powerful image-processing plug-in architecture that you can use to create new effects, generators, and transitions for Final Cut Pro X and Motion, unleashing your creativity as editors and motion graphics artists.

Leveraging technologies such as OpenGL, Quartz, Quartz Composer, and Core Image, you can develop unique plug-ins to do almost anything you can imagine to an image or movie, executed inside a friendly and fast host environment that includes onscreen controls and custom UI elements. For high-quality results and high-performance output, FxPlug supports both hardware-accelerated and CPU-based effects.

Great FxPlug Plug-ins Embrace the HI Design Principles

People appreciate plug-ins that they feel were designed expressly for Final Cut Pro X and Motion. For example, a plug-in that fits properly in the Inspector and uses custom onscreen controls (OSCs) that work seamlessly in the Viewer provides the ideal user experience. And although people might not be aware of human interface design principles, such as direct manipulation or consistency, they can tell when plug-ins follow them and when they don’t.

As you begin designing a plug-in with the FxPlug interface, consider what makes Final Cut Pro X and Motion unique, and learn how to incorporate HI design principles so that you can deliver an experience that users appreciate.

Great FxPlug Design Begins with Clear Definitions

Whether you’re starting with a new idea for a plug-in or you’re bringing existing plug-ins to FxPlug, it’s crucial to decide which features you intend to deliver, and to whom. Next ensure that the plug-in is tailored to the application in which it runs and to the task it enables.

A Great User Experience Is Rooted in Your Attention to Detail

Keep the user experience uppermost in your mind as you design every aspect of your plug-in, from the way you enable a task, to the way your plug-in starts and stops, to the way a slider works. Discover the general and specific guidelines that influence the look and behavior of your plugin.