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1Application DesignCopyright (c) 2005 - Poelman & Associates, Inc. unless otherwise copyrighted. All rights reserved.2To effectively designfor the user you must:• Understand the users abilities• Understand the users goals• Understand the tasks the user does to achieve those goals• Understand the frequency of expected use by the user• What are the users previous experience and training• What are the users expectations• Involve the user at various stages in the design process3User’s Abilities• Their experience with computer interfaces• Novice, Practitioner, Expert or Guru in the business domain the software will serve and with the software• With the use of any UI frequently enough the user will become more adept at the UI and need different features that they did as a beginner with the UI.4Users• Understand who the users are– Type – Novice, Practicianer, Expert, Guru– Frequency of use – continual, frequent, occasional, once, ?– Tolerance of a learning curve – none, a little, expected• Understand user’s goals• Understand what tasks achieve those goals5Determine the application flavor• Sovereign, Transient, Parasitic, Daemonic or Kiosk (S,T, P,D, or K)• A single application may support multiple execution flavors– ex: a sovereign application like word that can run as a transient app to enable printing a document from windows explorer• Focus on one flavor at a time. Possibly have mutltiple separate teams that target the needs of one flavor. Later reconcile them together.6The Model• Determine what a users mental model SHOULD be.• Keep that in mind while designing the UI mockups and prototypes• The implementation model should be delayed until later in the design, avoid having the implementation dictate the UI (and the mental model of the User)7The Model• Different user types may have different mental models and different goals.• Different aspects of the UI may target different user types i.e. rich menus for novices, toolbars for experts and a command line feature for gurus.• Don’t try to build a single UI for all possible users. Target the 80% of all users (or those that will pay the most for the software, maybe).8SDI vs. MDI• SDI - Single Document Interface – Most applications are SDI now.• MDI – Multiple Document Interface– Originally championed by Windows but now out of favor. – Had an advantage on mem and real estate constrained systems.– More expert oriented software may use MDI9SDI• Each instance running has its own set of menus and tools. To switch between the documents you use the taskbar to switch executing instances or via the Window menu.• A single primary window• Data Centered, Less Confusing• Ex: Word, Excel, PowerPoint10Even SDI is some MDI11PowerPoint acting as a SDI app12PowerPoint acting as a MDI app13MDI• A parent window with children (undocked and floating) within the main window canvas• NetBeans is SDI + MDI.• Powerful but confusing to novices (and some experts)• Child windows share the menus of the parent window.• Used to present multiple views of the same object. Ex: java code and swing visual editor of NetBeans• Used to allow comparing two different objects (docs) and/or moving data between them via drag and drop (or cut/paste)14MDI – two windows showing different views of the same object15MDI Example – different objects16Workbooks• Multiple windows in the same application but accessed via tabs like a workbook• Child windows don’t exist• Used to manage a set of views of an object• Quick navigation• Can be used shows order of windows by order of tabs• Can’t present simultaneous views17• Questions• Comments•7.518Workbook example19Workbook• Selected (and visible Tab) is the one that the menus are acting on if document or smaller focus of action.• Can be used as part of a SDI application –ex: Excel20Project•A single main window that coordinates and controls multiple child / peer windows. These windows are not constrained within the parent window but may be anywhere on the desktop / maximized / minimized / overlapped.• Ex: Video Editing Software, Music Players, Integrated Development and Testing Environments21Example Project Application22• Questions• Comments•7.7523Sovereign Application ExampleWordprocessor24Goals• Create and Print a Document• Change and Existing Document• Read a Document25Tasks• Create a blank document• Open an existing document• Enter text into a document• Enter images into a document• Enter charts into a document• Combine parts of one document with another• Proof the document for spelling and grammar• Format and Print and existing document26Activities (within one or more task)• Enter and manipulate text position– Editing text – cut, copy, paste, move, delete• Change text size, color, typeface, style, …– Formatting text• Change layout of the document paragraphs, tabs, spacing, …– Formatting the document27Design aspects• User Types – N, P, E or G ? – P and E• App Flavor – S,T, P, D, or K? –S or K• Frequency of use – continual, frequent, occasional, once, –C or F• Tolerance of a learning curve – none, a little, expected–E• SDI, MDI, Project, Workbook, Dialog, Wizard? –SDI or MDI28Parts of a document•Doc – 0,1 or more pages– Page• Paragraphs– Sentences» WordsCharacters• Page Number• Header• Footer• Each part of a document (Doc, Page, Para, …) has the following aspects– Character Code (what letter, symbol, or punctuation)– Type face and size– Typeface Style – normal, italics, Bold, Underline, Super, Sub, – Foreground Color– Background Color29Sketch the object hierarchy•Docs• Pages• Paragraphs• Words• Characters30Sketch the action hierarchy• Document Related Stuff– Create–Delete–Edit–Print–Save– Rename–Email• Select Part of Document• Change Part Of Document• Change the view of the document• Help with the application31Basic menu design32Sovereign Apps• Own the desktop• Expert users (and novices)• Support multiple tasks generally33What would novices do?• Create Docs• Edit Docs – enter text, change font•Print Docs34What would be on the menus? (based on novices needs)• Document– Create (New)– Edit (Open)–Print–Email• Select (Edit)–All– Paragraph– Sentence–Word– Character– Header– Footer• Manipulate– Cut (to clipboard)– Copy (to clipboard)–


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NYU CSCI-GA 2280 - Application Design

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