Implementing an interface to networked services

ABSTRACT

This paper highlights the general problems and difficulties in using networked services. A prototype has been developed to help users interact with networked services. General design principles which arise in implementing a prototype user interface to networked services are discussed. The construction of the prototype is based on an object-oriented approach. The way it communicates with networked services and a help facility are also described.

REFERENCES

• 1: Apple Computer Inc., MacIntosh Human Interface Guidelines, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1992
• 2: Stuart K. Card , George G. Robertson , Jock D. Mackinlay, The information visualizer, an information workspace, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Reaching through technology, p.181-186, April 27-May 02, 1991, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States [doi>10.1145/108844.108874]
• 3: Clark, I. A. (1981), "Software Simulation as a Tool for Usable Product Design", IBM System Journal 20(2), pp. 272-293.
• 4: Diederich, J. & Milton, J. (1987), "Experimental Prototyping in Smalltalk", 1EEE Software 4(3), pp. 50-64.
• 5: Dillon, M., Jul, M., Burge M. and Hickey, C. (1993), "Assessing Information on the Intemet: Toward Providing Library Services for Computer-Mediated Communication", Internet Research 3(1), pp. 64-69.
• 6: Thomas M. Duffy , James E. Palmer , Brad Mehlenbacher, Online Help: Design and Evaluation, Greenwood Publishing Group Inc., Westport, CT, 1993
• 7: Goldberg, A & Pope, S.T. (1983), "Object-Oriented Programming is not Enough", American Programmer 2(7&8), pp. 46-59.
• 8: Adele Goldberg , David Robson, Smalltalk-80: the language and its implementation, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1983
• 9: Ian Graham, Object oriented methods, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1991
• 10: Deborah Hix , H. Rex Hartson, Developing user interfaces: ensuring usability through product & process, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 1993
• 11: Raymond C. Houghton, Jr., Online help systems: a conspectus, Communications of the ACM, v.27 n.2, p.126-133, Feb. 1984 [doi>10.1145/69610.357985]
• 12: Celeste S. Magers, An experimental evaluation of on-line HELP for non-programmers, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, p.277-281, December 12-15, 1983, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [doi>10.1145/800045.801626]
• 13: Min Tjoa & Katypel, G. A. (1992), "State of Art and Open Issues on Graphical User Interfaces for Object-Oriented Systems", Information and Software Technology 34(11), pp. 721-730.
• 14: Terry Morrow, BIDS ISI: a new national bibliographic data service for the UK academic community, Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, v.25 n.4-5, p.448-453, Nov. 1992
• 15: Brad A. Myers, The importance of percent-done progress indicators for computer-human interfaces, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.11-17, April 1985, San Francisco, California, United States
• 16: Jakob Nielsen, Classification of dialog techniques, ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, v.19 n.2, p.30-35, October 1, 1987 [doi>10.1145/36111.36115]
• 17: Jakob Nielsen, Usability Engineering, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1993
• 18: Jakob Nielsen , John T. Richards, The Experience of Learning and Using Smalltalk, IEEE Software, v.6 n.3, p.73-77, May 1989 [doi>10.1109/52.28126]
• 19: George Sadowsky, Network connectivity for developing countries, Communications of the ACM, v.36 n.8, p.42-47, Aug. 1993 [doi>10.1145/163381.163388]
• 20: Sellen, A. & Nicol, A. (1990), Building User-Centered On- Line Help. In Laurel, B. ed. The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
• 21: Ben Shneiderman, Designing the user interface (2nd ed.): strategies for effective human-computer interaction, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1992
• 22: David Canfield Smith , Charles Irby , Ralph Kimball , Bill Berplank , Eric Harslem, Designing the Star user interface, Human-computer interaction, Prentice Hall Press, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1990
• 23: Smith, S. L. & Mosier, J.N. (1986), Design Guidelines for Designing User Interface Software. Technical Report MTR-10090, The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, USA.
• 24: Sun Microsystems, inc. (1991), OpenWin: User's Guide, Addison-Wesley.
• 25: Thomas, D. (1989), "What's in an Object?", Byte 14(3), pp. 231-240.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)

General Terms:
Documentation, Theory