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User Interface Design: (Lecture 7)

This document discusses user interface design and direct manipulation interfaces. It covers windowing systems and how they use a window manager and window system. Widgets are introduced as basic building blocks that provide consistency across applications and reduce user learning time.

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83 views23 pages

User Interface Design: (Lecture 7)

This document discusses user interface design and direct manipulation interfaces. It covers windowing systems and how they use a window manager and window system. Widgets are introduced as basic building blocks that provide consistency across applications and reduce user learning time.

Uploaded by

jatinder
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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User Interface Design

(Lecture 7)

Dr. R. Mall
Direct Manipulation Interface

 Present information to the user


 as visual models or objects.
 Actions are performed on the visual
representations of the objects, e.g.
 pull an icon representing a file into an icon
representing a trash box, for deleting the file.
 Direct manipulation interfaces are
sometimes called as iconic interfaces.
Direct Manipulation (Iconic)
Interface

 Important advantages of iconic


interfaces:
 icons can be recognized by users very easily,
 icons are language-independent.
 However, experienced users consider
direct manipulation interfaces too
slow.
Direct Manipulation (Iconic)
Interface

 It is difficult to form complex commands


using a direct manipulation interface.
 For example, if one has to drag a file icon
into a trash box icon for deleting a file:
 to delete all files in a directory one has to
perform this operation again and again
 very easily done in a command language-
interface by issuing a command delete *.*
Windowing Systems

 Most modern GUIs are developed using


some windowing system.
 A windowing system can generate displays
through a set of windows.
 Since a window is a basic entity in such a
graphical user interface:
 we need to first discuss what exactly a window
is.
Window

 A window is a rectangular area on the screen.


 A window is a is a virtual screen:
 it provides an interface to the user for carrying out
independent activities,
 one window can be used for editing a program and
another for drawing pictures, etc.
 A window can be divided into two parts:
 client part,
 non-client part.
Window

 The client area makes up the whole of


the window,
 except for the borders and scroll bars.
 The client area is available to the
programmer.
 Non-client area:
 under the control of window manager.
Window management system
(WMS)

 A graphical interface might consist


of a large number of windows,
 necessary to have some systematic
way to manage the windows.
 Window Management System
(WMS)
Window management system
(WMS)

 GUIs are developed using a window


management system (WMS):
 A window management system is
primarily a resource manager.
 keeps track of screen area resource
 allocates it to the different windows
which are using the screen.
Window management system
(WMS)

 From a broader perspective, a WMS can be


considered as a user interface
management system (UIMS) ---
 not only does resource management,
 also provides the basic behavior to windows
 provides several utility routines to the
application programmer for user interface
development.
Window management system
(WMS)

 A WMS simplifies the task of a GUI


designer to a great extent:
 provides the basic behavior to the various
windows such as move, resize, iconify, etc.
 provides routines to manipulate windows such
as:
creating, destroying, changing attributes of the
windows, and drawing text, lines, etc.
Window management system
(WMS)

 A WMS consists of two part:


 a window manager
 a window system.

Window Manager Application Program


WMS
Window
System
Window Manager and Window
System

 User interacts with window manager to do


various window-related operations such as:
 window repositioning,
 window resizing,
 iconification, etc.
 Window manager also controls the
screen’s real estate policy.
Window manager

 The window manager is built on the top of


the window system:
 makes use of the basic services provided by
the window system.
 The window manager determines how the
windows look and behave.
 several kinds of window managers can be
based on the same window system.
Window manager

 Window manager can be considered


as a special program:
 makes use of the services (function
calls) of the window system.
 Application programs
 invoke the window system for user
interface-related functions.
Window System

 Provides a large number of


routines for the programmer
 It is very cumbersome to use
these large set of routines:
 most WMS provide a higher-level
abstraction called widgets.
Window Management System

 A widget is the short form for a window


object.
 Widgets are the building blocks in interface
design.
 We know that an object is essentially a
collection of:
 related data with several operations defined on
these data.
Widgets

 The data of an window object are:


 the geometric attributes (such as size,
location etc.)
 other attributes such as its background
and foreground color, etc.
 The operations defined on these data
include, resize, move, draw, etc.
Advantages of Widgets

 One of the most important reasons to


use widgets as building blocks:
 provide consistency.
 Consistent user interfaces
 improve the user's productivity and
 lead to higher performance with fewer
errors.
Advantages of Widgets

 Widgets make users familiar with standard


ways of using an interface ---
 users can easily extend their knowledge of
interface of one application to another
 the learning time for users is reduced to a
great extent.
 Next lecture we will identify standard
widgets used to design GUIs.
Summary

 User interface is an important


component of any software product.
 We first discussed some important
concepts associated with user
interface design.
 We discussed some desirable
properties of a good user interface.
Summary

 There are 3 main types of interfaces:


 command language interface
 menu-based interface
 iconic interface
 Each type of interface has its own
advantages and disadvantages:
 most modern interfaces use a combination of
all the three types.
Summary

 We finally discussed concepts


associated with a window
management system (WMS):
 consists of a window manager and a
window system.
 we discussed the use of widgets as the
basic building blocks in GUI design.

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