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"So it's up to us, as software developers, to make our applications as easy and intuitive as possible." Actually, uh, nope--it's up to the user experience folks to design the applications to be easy & intuitive--the interaction designers, the info architects, the usability experts, and yes the technical writers--these folks are the advocates for the user. Developers just aren't wired to put user needs before technology needs.
I enjoyed the reminder. Not every developer is part of a large team and the developer may have to wear many hats. Even in large groups, some projects are proof of concept and this would provide a quick and dirty approach. But, as jsokohl says, someone must think of it before the user gets very upset with the work.
gsnashall
gsnashall
At last, someone has stumbled over this small issue. As mentioned in the article, there is no built-in mechanism in Swing. This is one of the reasons why I sometimes tend to switch to Delphi for small apps, as this language/IDE comes with that kind of mechanisms, enabling me to rapidly develop applications without the dirty part... No offence to the Java language (I even am a Sun Certified Programmer), I'm just the kind of guy that doesn't swear by one language...
Maybe a little off topic but how does one get to put a resize grip on the corner of a status bar for Swing, I cannot find this anyware on the net.. honest!
b.t.w. Software Engineers have HCI(Human Computer Interface) design as a course in their degree with design for purpose in mind, we are the creators so we should have some responsibility in the use or our creations.
Many thanks for the article.
b.t.w. Software Engineers have HCI(Human Computer Interface) design as a course in their degree with design for purpose in mind, we are the creators so we should have some responsibility in the use or our creations.
Many thanks for the article.
As a Software QA Analyst I must disagree. All parties, including the Developer, should be involved during all phases (specs and design review). I don't believe that Developers "just aren't wired". This sounds more like a case of a developer that needs to be told what to write.
I think the initial comment is intended to indicate the process, not to exclude developers. I agree all stakeholders should be involved, making it easier to get everyone's "buy-in". We are all one big or small team.
Good article, though it was surprising to see the concept seeming novel simply because of it being implemented in Java.
I remember learning the value of the same principle [Field and Status line help messages] back in my early days developing commercial applications using compiled "Pascal" on "DEC VMS" O/S using some proprietary Forms Builder (FMS?) and proprietary database (Datatrieve?) for users viewing applications via "vt100 text character" green-screens. Weird/nostalgic re: 1980's.
The idea of field help & status bar help has been around for a while.
One question, does this method have any inherent support to de-couple the messages from the code [rather than the text being embedded into Java statements ] ?
This way messages can be written and maintained in separate files by separate people, with stronger linguistic / multi-lingual abilities than the developer. Division of labour etc.
I remember learning the value of the same principle [Field and Status line help messages] back in my early days developing commercial applications using compiled "Pascal" on "DEC VMS" O/S using some proprietary Forms Builder (FMS?) and proprietary database (Datatrieve?) for users viewing applications via "vt100 text character" green-screens. Weird/nostalgic re: 1980's.
The idea of field help & status bar help has been around for a while.
One question, does this method have any inherent support to de-couple the messages from the code [rather than the text being embedded into Java statements ] ?
This way messages can be written and maintained in separate files by separate people, with stronger linguistic / multi-lingual abilities than the developer. Division of labour etc.
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