Cooper Part II WellBehaved Products Etiquette Posture and

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 Ed 4, Ch 9

Ch 9 : Posture The way the program appears to users Platform Type of computer Desktop, web apps, mobile, … Posture depends heavily on the platform 05 -Mar-21 © Jeff Offutt 2

Posture for the Desktop 1) Sovereign – Only program running, user’s complete attention, full screen – Editors, spreadsheets, games, browsers (usually) – Experienced users—optimize for speed and power 2) 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 3) Daemonic – – 05 -Mar-21 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 © Jeff Offutt 3

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 … 05 -Mar-21 © Jeff Offutt 4

Web App Usability 1. Sovereign – Make users feel they are in an environment, not web pages – Design as if desktop applications – Emphasize interaction, not navigation – Hide request / response cycle 2. Transient – Quick occasional access to information or functions (login) – Small, simple, non-intrusive 3. Internet-enabled – Uses internet, but not from inside a browser – Java applets, tools, music players – Can access disk and have controls HTML does not 05 -Mar-21 © Jeff Offutt 5

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 05 -Mar-21 © Jeff Offutt 6

Mobile Postures • 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) 05 -Mar-21 © Jeff Offutt 7

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 – – 05 -Mar-21 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 © Jeff Offutt 8

Posture Summary Don’t design everything like a sovereign Effective UI designers must know their users 05 -Mar-21 © Jeff Offutt 9