GVU Technical Report Number:
GIT-GVU-91-29
Title:
User Interface Software Tools
Authors:
James D. Foley
Abstract:
Developing high-quality user interfaces is becoming the critical step in
bringing many different computer applications to end users. Ease of
learning and speed of use typically must be combined in an
attractively-designed interface which appeals to application-oriented
(not computer-oriented) end users. This is a complex undertaking,
requiring skills of computer scientists, application specialists, graphic
designers, human factors experts, and psychologists.
User interface software is the foundation upon which the interface is
built. The quality of the building blocks provided by the software
establishes the framework within which an interface designer works. The
tools should allow the designer to quickly experiment with different
design approaches, and should be accessible to the non-programmer
designer.
In this paper we discuss important directions in software tools for
building user interfaces:
- Unified representation serving multiple purposes;
- Integration with software engineering tools;
- Interaction programming and by-example creation of interfaces and
interface components.
Most of our focus is on the first two areas.
Keywords:
User interfaces, application-oriented, graphic design, human factors
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