Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines: Advanced Topics

Java(TM) Look and Feel Design Guidelines: Advanced Topics
by Sun Microsystems Inc. (Author)

# Paperback: 200 pages
# Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (December 27, 2001)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0201775824
# ISBN-13: 978-0201775822

Product Description

Provides programmers with the requirements for creating user interfaces using the Java Foundation Classes (JFC). Focuses on the built-in Java look and feel (called Metal). Defines the visual design standard for the next generation of Java programs. Softcover.

From the Inside Flap
Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines provides essential information for anyone involved in the process of creating cross-platform JavaTM applications and applets. In particular, this book offers design guidelines for software that uses the JavaTM Foundation Classes (JFC) together with the Java look and feel. (Unless specified otherwise, this book uses “application” to refer to both applets and applications.)

Who Should Use This Book

Although the human interface designer and the software developer might well be the same person, the two jobs require different tasks, skills, and tools. Primarily, this book addresses the designer who chooses the interface components, lays them out in a set of views, and designs the user interaction model for an application. This book should also prove useful for developers, technical writers, graphic artists, production and marketing specialists, and testers who participate in the creation of Java applications and applets.

Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines focuses on design issues and human-computer interaction in the context of the Java look and feel. It also attempts to provide a common vocabulary for designers, developers, and other professionals.They do not address the needs of software that runs on consumer electronic devices.

How This Book Is Organized

Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines includes the following chapters:

Chapter 1, “The Java Look and Feel,” introduces the design concepts underlying the Java look and feel and offers a quick visual tour of an application and an applet designed with the JFC components and the Java look and feel.

Chapter 2, “Java Foundation Classes,” provides an overview of the Java Foundation Classes, suggests effective ways to use the JFC components, and describes the concept of pluggable look and feel designs.

Chapter 3, “Design Considerations,” discusses some of the fundamental challenges of designing Java look and feel applications and offers recommendations for applet design, accessibility, internationalization, and localization.

Chapter 4, “Visual Design,” provides suggestions for the use of the Java look and feel themes mechanism to change color and fonts in your application, provides guidelines for the capitalization of text in the interface and makes recommendations for layout and visual alignment.

Chapter 5, “Designing Application Graphics,” discusses the use of cross-platform color, the creation of application graphics to fit with the Java look and feel, and the design of graphics to enhance corporate and product identity.

Chapter 6, “Behavior,” tells how users of Java look and feel applications utilize the mouse, keyboard, and screen. It provides recommendations regarding user input and human-computer interaction, including a discussion of drag and drop operations.

Chapter 7, “Windows, Panes, and Frames,” discusses and makes recommendations for the use of primary, secondary, and utility windows as well as scroll panes, tabbed panes, and split panes.

Chapter 8, “Dialog Boxes,” describes and makes recommendations for the use of dialog boxes, the supplied alert boxes, and the color chooser.

Chapter 9, “Menus and Toolbars,” presents details about and makes suggestions for the use of drop-down menus, contextual menus, toolbars, and tool tips.

Chapter 10, “Basic Controls,” covers the use of controls such as command buttons, toggle buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, sliders, and combo boxes. It also describes progress bars and provides suggestions for their use.

Chapter 11, “Text Components,” explains and makes recommendations for the use of the JFC components that control the display and editing of text.

Chapter 12, “Lists, Tables, and Trees,” discusses and makes recommendations for the use of lists, tables, and tree views.

Appendix A, “Keyboard Navigation, Activation, and Selection,” contains tables that specify keyboard sequences for the components of the Java Foundation Classes.

The Glossary defines important words and phrases found in this book. They appear in boldface at first occurrence.

Graphic Conventions

Screen shots in this book illustrate the use of JFC components in applications with the Java look and feel. Because such applications typically run inside windows provided and managed by the native platform, which might include, among many others, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, or CDE (Common Desktop Environment), the screen shots show assorted styles of windows and dialog boxes.

Throughout the text, symbols are used to call your attention to design guidelines. Each type of guideline is identified by a unique symbol.

Java Look and Feel Standards

Requirements for the consistent appearance and compatible behavior of Java look and feel applications. These standards promote flexibility and ease of use in cross-platform applications and the creation of applications that support all users, including users with physical and cognitive limitations. These standards require you to take actions that go beyond the provided appearance and behavior of the JFC components.

Occasionally, you might need to violate these standards. In such situations, use your discretion to balance competing requirements. Be sure to engage in user testing to validate your judgments.

Cross-Platform Delivery Guidelines

Recommendations for dealing with colors, fonts, keyboard operations, and other problems that arise when you want to deliver your application to a variety of computers running a range of operating systems.

Internationalization Guidelines

Advice for creating applications that can be adapted to the global marketplace.

Implementation Tips

Technical information and useful tips of particular interest to the programmers who are implementing your application design.

Related Books and Web Sites

This book does not provide detailed discussions of human interface design principles, nor does it present much general information about application design. However, many excellent references are available on topics such as fundamental principles of human interface design, design issues for specific (or multiple) platforms, and the issues relating to accessibility, internationalization, and applet design.

Design Principles

The resources in this section provide information on the fundamental concepts underlying human-computer interaction and interface design.

Baecker, Ronald M., William Buxton, and Jonathan Grudin. Readings in Human-Computer Interaction: Toward the Year 2000, 2nd ed. Morgan Kaufman Publishing, 1995. A collection of research from graphic and industrial design, and cognition and group process, this volume addresses the efficiency and adequacy of human interfaces.

Hurlburt, Allen. The Grid: A Modular System for the Design and Production of Newspapers, Magazines, and Books. John Wiley & Sons, 1997. This is an excellent starting text. Although originally intended for print design, this book contains many guidelines that are applicable to software design.

IBM Human-Computer Interaction Group. “IBM Ease of Use.” Available: ibm/ibm/easy.This web site covers many fundamental aspects of human interface design.

Laurel, Brenda, ed. The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design. Addison-Wesley, 1990. Begun as a project inside Apple, this collection of essays from computer industry experts explores strategies and reasoning behind human-computer interaction and looks at the future of the relationship between humans and computers. It surveys diverse design techniques and examines work in drama and narrative, industrial design, animation, and cognitive and interpersonal psychology.

Mullet, Kevin, and Darrell Sano. Designing Visual Interfaces: Communication-Oriented Techniques. Prentice-Hall, 1995. This volume covers fundamental design principles, common mistakes, and step-by-step techniques in several visual aspects of interface design: elegance and simplicity; scale, contrast, and proportion; organization and visual structure; module and program; image and representation; and style.

Nielsen, Jakob. Usability Engineering. Academic Press, 1994. This classic contains a substantial chapter on international user interfaces, including gestural interfaces, international usability engineering, guidelines for internationalization, resource separation, and interfaces for more than one locale.

Norman, Donald A. The Design of Everyday Things. Doubleday, 1990. A well-liked, amusing, and discerning examination of why some products satisfy users while others only baffle and disappoint them. Black-and-white photographs and illustrations throughout complement the astute analysis.

Shneiderman, Ben. Designing User Interface Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction. 3rd Edition. Addison Wesley, 1997. The third edition of the best seller, which provides a complete, current, and authoritative intro –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines Advanced Topics provides advanced design guidelines for user interfaces based on the Java Foundation Classes (JFC) with the Java look and feel. This book augments the award-winning Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines, 2nd ed.

Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines, Advanced Topics describes how to:

* Choose the right type of window for each user task
* Organize menus logically, especially in applications with multiple windows
* Enable users to view, search, and work with large sets of objects
* Make your application easier to learn by reusing patterns of JFC components
* Make your application seem faster to users even when you cannot increase its actual speed
* Design wizards that are efficient for new and experienced users
* Display alarms in applications that manage or monitor systems, such as networks or large computer systems

Created by a team of user interface experts at Sun Microsystems, Inc., this timely book provides many useful guidelines for improving consistency and efficiency in applications that use the Java look and feel. By following these guidelines, you can create user interfaces with the flexibility, usability, and efficiency you need.

0201775824B10222001

About the Author

The Java Look and Feel Design Group at Sun Microsystems creates interface standards that enable designers and developers to build outstanding human interfaces with the Java programming language.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines: Advanced Topics provides guidelines for anyone designing user interfaces for applications written in the Java programming language. In particular, this book offers design guidelines for applications that use the Java look and feel. This book supplements Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines, 2d ed. For details on that book, see “Related Books” on page 4.

Although some topics in Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines: Advanced Topics apply only to certain types of applications, most topics apply to all applications that use the Java look and feel.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Note: We do not host these ebook files. If you have any complaint of copyright, please comment or contact us. We'll remove the download link immediatly!

• The Benefits of AIX Data Replication in HACMP Clusters
• The State of Resilience and Optimization on IBM Power Systems: Research Findings Based on Surveys of IBM i and AIX Users
• An Introduction to IBM System i (iSeries) High Availability Solutions

We are pleased to offer you this exciting, new, and entirely free professional resource. Visit our Free Industry resource center today to browse our selection of 600+ complimentary Industry magazines, white papers, webinars, podcasts, and more.
Download Links:
Link1
Depositfiles
Tools to Download Faster
TweetBucks, Linkbee

Related eBooks - Up | Down