1. I/O Toolkits
Scott Klemmer · 16 November 2006

2. Recap: What are Interface Toolkits?
Goal: make it easier to develop user interfaces by providing application developers with reusable components that accomplish common input and output needs
Toolkits have a well-planned architecture and API & provide a library

3. Example: Java Swing
GUI toolkit with a widget set and an API

4. Example: M$ Interface Builder
Can specify widget placement and basic properties with a visual editor
Programmer writes code for widget callbacks and complex behaviors

5. Why use toolkits? Code reuse saves programmer time
50% of code is for the GUI [Myers & Rosson, CHI ’92]
Consistent look & feel across apps
Easier to modify and iterate the UI
Make UI development accessible to more people
Non-artists
Non-programmers???

6. Drawbacks
Can be limiting – developers are likely to make the kinds of UIs that the toolkit makes easy
Traditional GUI toolkits are problematic for non-WIMP user interfaces such as:
Groupware
Physical UIs

7. DiamondSpin Toolkit Toolkit for tabletop user interfaces
[Shen, Vernier, Forlines, Ringel] CHI ’04

8. Tabletop UI Needs Multi-user support
Identity-aware widgets
Multiple menus
Public and personal spaces
Resolving conflicting actions
Arbitrary orientation of UI elements
Techniques to control orientation and layout
Rotation sensitive components

10. DiamondSpin Video

11. iStuff Toolkit
Physical UI components for ubiquitous computing environments (multiple users, devices, and applications)
[Ballagas, Ringel, Stone, Borchers], CHI ‘03

12. iStuff Design iStuff components PatchPanel
Device + proxy (“smarts” are in the proxy)
PatchPanel
Translate between iStuff events and application-specific events
Run-time retargetable events
Address dimension mismatches

14. Evaluating Toolkits Ease of use Depth, Breadth, and Extensibility
A toolkit’s API is a user interface, too! [Klemmer et al., 2004] evaluated the API of Papier-Mache
Depth, Breadth, and Extensibility
Systems issues
Speed
Portability

15. Current Research Challenges
Complex design space
e.g., Do we have to update the toolkit every time someone creates a new sensor or actuator?
Ambiguous input
Speech, gestures, computer vision, etc. aren’t recognized as accurately as mouse clicks. Should the toolkit handle the recognition?

16. Summary
I/O Toolkits provide reusable interface components to simplify UI development
Toolkit trap: it’s tempting to only make UIs that the toolkit makes easy, instead of making what’s best for a specific app
Toolkit types:
WIMP (Garnet, Swing, Motif, etc)
Speciality (Phidgets, iStuff, Papier-Mache, DiamondSpin, GroupKit, Peripheral Displays Toolkit, etc)

17. Next Time… Display Techniques
Interactive public ambient displays: transitioning from implicit to explicit, public to personal, interaction with multiple users, Daniel Vogel, Ravin Balakrishnan
SUPPLE: Automatically Generating User Interfaces, Krzysztof Gajos and Daniel S. Weld