User Interface Design and Development Cooper Part II Well-Behaved Products Etiquette, Posture, and Intermediates Jeff Offutt http://www.cs.gmu.edu/~offutt/ SWE 632 User Interface Design and Development Cooper Ed4, Ch 9

Ch 9 : Posture Posture The way the program appears to users Platform Type of computer Desktop, web apps, mobile, … Posture depends heavily on the platform 20-Sep-18 © Jeff Offutt

Posture for the Desktop Sovereign Only program running, user’s complete attention, full screen Editors, spreadsheets, games, browsers (usually) Experienced users—optimize for speed and power Transient Invoked when needed, does something, goes away Scanning a picture, file manager, email, music players Intermittent users—clear instructions, less screen, larger widgets Avoid dialog boxes and remember state from last use Daemonic Services that do not interact with the user Printer & network drivers, compilers Try not to bother users unless absolutely necessary Include configuration panels, but simple and streamlined 20-Sep-18 © Jeff Offutt

Some Web-specific usability points … Posture for the Web HTML supports a very limited widget set Javascript can be used to create many more widgets, but that is relatively complicated This is becoming more common On the other hand, it takes fewer technical skills to implement a GUI front-end with HTML than with other technologies Complex, multi-screen transactional applications are just as hard, and perhaps harder, to develop HTML provides greater separation between engineers, GUI designers, and graphics designers Some Web-specific usability points … 20-Sep-18 © Jeff Offutt

Web App Usability Sovereign Transient Internet-enabled Make users feel they are in an environment, not web pages Design as if desktop applications Emphasize interaction, not navigation Hide request / response cycle Transient Quick occasional access to information or functions (login) Small, simple, non-intrusive Internet-enabled Uses internet, but not from inside a browser Java applets, tools, music players Can access disk and have controls HTML does not support 20-Sep-18 © Jeff Offutt

Posture for Mobile Devices Very small screen and keyboard Help users with the fat finger problem Avoid huge hierarchical menus that are very confusing All functions are equally difficult to find But some are more commonly used Make it easy to synchronize with full computer UI designer needs to specify the buttons on the hardware Function bloat : who uses all that junk? No pop-up or dialog windows Avoid dragging Controls should be large and bright 20-Sep-18 © Jeff Offutt

Mobile Postures Standalone (phones) Tablet Satellite (PDAs, palm pilots, kindle, …) Allows part of our desktop environment to go mobile Periodically synchronize with the mother ship (desktop or the web) Emphasizes viewing and retrieving data Standalone (phones) Small, complete “pocket” computers Full interaction, but small screens, text, and controls Often mimic desktop applications but with reduced functionality Tablet Same restrictions as standalone, but less severe Mostly only allow sovereign applications (full-screen) 20-Sep-18 © Jeff Offutt

Designing for Embedded Systems Embedded software is integrated into a device that is not primarily for computing Phones, PDAs, remotes, ATMs, TVs, appliances, cars, planes, … The input / output devices are often much different Often much more constrained in abilities Designing the UI is very different from designing UIs for desktop applications Don’t think of the product as a computer Coordinate UI design with hardware design External environment will affect the UI Should use many fewer modes Navigation is harder and should be reduced 20-Sep-18 © Jeff Offutt

Posture Summary Don’t design everything like a sovereign Effective UI designers must know their users 20-Sep-18 © Jeff Offutt