21.07.2013 Views

User Interface Design and Ergonomics - National Open University of ...

User Interface Design and Ergonomics - National Open University of ...

User Interface Design and Ergonomics - National Open University of ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

unique features in Freeform that make it better suited for use on large displays versus<br />

traditional desktop displays as shown in the figure below:<br />

Figure 18: Showing an example <strong>of</strong> Freeform prototyping screen<br />

3.5.1 ANALYSIS OF PROTOTYPING TOOLS<br />

Each type <strong>of</strong> user interface prototyping tool discussed above <strong>of</strong>fers some unique features<br />

or advantages to designers. However, most tools are designed for very specific purposes<br />

<strong>and</strong> have very little or no support for transitioning between each <strong>of</strong> the different fidelities.<br />

None <strong>of</strong> the tools support mixing <strong>of</strong> all three fidelities within a single prototype. Also,<br />

none <strong>of</strong> the tools are specifically designed for collaborative use on a large display;<br />

however, simply using tools such as DENIM on a large display may <strong>of</strong>fer some benefits<br />

over use on a traditional desktop display.<br />

3.6 WIDGETS<br />

Widgets are reusable user interface components. As stated in Module 1, they are also<br />

called controls, interactors, gizmos, or gadgets. Some examples <strong>of</strong> widgets have been<br />

given in Unit 5 <strong>of</strong> Module 1. Widgets are user interface toolkits. Widgets are a success<br />

story for user interface s<strong>of</strong>tware, <strong>and</strong> for object-oriented programming in general. Many<br />

GUI applications derive substantial reuse from widgets in a toolkit.<br />

ADVANTAGES OF USING WIDGETS<br />

• Reuse <strong>of</strong> development efforts<br />

• Coding, testing, debugging, maintenance<br />

• Iteration <strong>and</strong> evaluation<br />

DISADVANTAGES<br />

• Constrain designer’s thinking<br />

125

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!