Class Announcements 1 week left until project presentations! Tuesday, Dec. 7th 1pm – 3:30 pm Room is Gates B12 (in the basement) Feel free to invite guests, there will be plenty of space 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

Presentation Format (A Guide) 8 min + 4 min (questions and changeover) Tell A Story Intro Benefits Contextual Inquiry Paper/Lo-Fi/First Prototype User Test / Redesign Final Prototype Show a Demo May be Videotaped =) 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

Merrie Ringel 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits Merrie Ringel 30 November 2004

What are Interface Toolkits? Goal: make it easier to develop user interfaces by providing application developers with reusable components that accomplish common input and output needs Toolkits have a well-planned architecture and API & provide a library 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

Example: Java Swing GUI toolkit with a widget set and an API 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

Example: M$ Interface Builder Can specify widget placement and basic properties with a visual editor Programmer writes code for widget callbacks and complex behaviors 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

Why use toolkits? Code reuse saves programmer time 50% of code is for the GUI [Myers & Rosson, CHI ’92] Consistent look & feel across apps Easier to modify and iterate the UI Make UI development accessible to more people Non-artists Non-programmers??? 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

Drawbacks Can be limiting – developers are likely to make the kinds of UIs that the toolkit makes easy Traditional GUI toolkits are problematic for non-WIMP user interfaces such as: Groupware Physical UIs 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

DiamondSpin Toolkit Toolkit for tabletop user interfaces [Shen, Vernier, Forlines, Ringel] CHI ’04 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

Tabletop UI Needs Multi-user support Identity-aware widgets Multiple menus Public and personal spaces Resolving conflicting actions Arbitrary orientation of UI elements Techniques to control orientation and layout Rotation sensitive components 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

DiamondSpin Video 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

iStuff Toolkit Physical UI components for ubiquitous computing environments (multiple users, devices, and applications) [Ballagas, Ringel, Stone, Borchers], CHI ‘03 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

iStuff Design iStuff components PatchPanel Device + proxy (“smarts” are in the proxy) PatchPanel Translate between iStuff events and application-specific events Run-time retargetable events Address dimension mismatches 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

iStuff Video 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

Evaluating Toolkits Ease of use Depth, Breadth, and Extensibility A toolkit’s API is a user interface, too! [Klemmer et al., 2004] evaluated the API of Papier-Mache Depth, Breadth, and Extensibility Systems issues Speed Portability 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

Current Research Challenges Complex design space e.g., Do we have to update the toolkit every time someone creates a new sensor or actuator? Ambiguous input Speech, gestures, computer vision, etc. aren’t recognized as accurately as mouse clicks. Should the toolkit handle the recognition? 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits

Summary I/O Toolkits provide reusable interface components to simplify UI development Toolkit trap: it’s tempting to only make UIs that the toolkit makes easy, instead of making what’s best for a specific app Toolkit types: WIMP (Garnet, Swing, Motif, etc) Speciality (Phidgets, iStuff, Papier-Mache, DiamondSpin, GroupKit, Peripheral Displays Toolkit, etc) 30 November 2004 I/O Toolkits