RoboGeek

Tiny LAF Just want to provide a little visibility to Tiny LAF

This is a Swing L&F that's strikingly familiar to a certain desktop OS, but the L&F runs across platform anywhere that JDK 1.4+ exists.

Looking at the screenshots I was reminded by an old idea.  A long time ago I read the book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and it was a very transformative experience.  The book talks about effective display of information using visual means.

What I remember taking from it is how it danced around two points.  The first is the data you're presenting and the form you present the data.  The second is the packaging of that visual presentation.

For example you could make a simple table of numbers with lines delineating the columns and rows.  The lines are the packaging, while the numbers are the data.  But the eye might get lost with the lines, so it might be more effective to instead use shading of the background of table cells to help you follow the rows more effectively.

Or you might realize that numbers are a poor way to present that dataset, and a graph is much better.

In any case I've always connected this with GUI toolkit design.  When you write a GUI application you're visually presenting some data.  My curiousity is, when does the GUI toolkit interfere with seeing the data?

Look at a typical GUI component.  It's built on-screen with some lines and shading and whatnot that's remniscient of a real-world object.  The metaphors have a long history beginning with Apple and XeroxPARC.  Nowadays the metaphors include mouseover behavior and feedback through interactivity.  I think it's very possible for the designer of a GUI Toolkit L&F to get lost in the artistry and forget the ultimate purpose of a GUI toolkit - which is, to assist an application designer in effectively presenting their data.

For example - there's a fad of using gradients in the background .... does the gradient help?  Or interfere?  Likewise the brushed metal look popularized on OS X.  Comparing the two in my mind, the Apple applications that used this brushed metal look still have a clear presentation of the application data ... even though the brushed metal effect is pure glitz.

Hmmm.... too much to think about for now.
(2005-07-22 14:02:44.0) Permalink Comments [1]