This document discusses usability in Eclipse applications. It highlights that usability is important, and outlines several tools and features in Eclipse for improving usability, including style guides, welcome pages, cheat sheets, context-sensitive help, and control decoration. The overall goal of these usability features is to make Eclipse applications more user-friendly.
2. Points to take away today
Usability is important
What is available in Eclipse
How to use it
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3. Don‘t judge a book by its cover?
One bad experience and poof...customers are
history. Sure, you can replace them, but at five times
the cost. Pavvo Hanninen, Director, University of Alabama
Any darn fool can make something complex; it
takes a genius to make something simple Albert Einstein
You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a
sledge hammer on the construction site Frank Lloyd Wright
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http://www.theomandel.com/resources/quotes.html
4. Usability in Eclipse applications
How the application should look and behave
Style guide
How users can see an overview of important info
Welcome pages
Guiding users’ first steps in the application
Cheat sheets
Helping users with specific problems during use
Context sensitive help, control decoration
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5. The style guide
Aim: consistent UI across Eclipse projects
Covers various aspects of UI
Prompts, initial focus position etc. in wizards, dialogs
Guidelines for capitalization
Keyboard and mouse accessibility
Where to put menu entries
Where to make action available
Icons, tooltips, shortcuts
http://wiki.eclipse.org/User_Interface_Guidelines
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6. The welcome pages (Eclipse Intro)
Control the first thing a user sees
In your application
org.eclipse.core.runtime.products
org.eclipse.ui.intro
In the plugin
org.eclipse.ui.intro.configExtension
id=org.eclipse.ui.intro.universalConfig
HTML and CSS files
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7. The cheat sheets
Interactive tutorial
Step by step instructions
Manual or automatic
Wide range of options
Embedded help, optional steps
Sequential sheets, composite sheets
Hierarchy
Cheat sheet task step sub step
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8. Using the cheat sheets
New plugin
Extension point:
org.eclipse.ui.cheatsheets.cheatSheetContent
Wizards and editors to create cheat sheets
Hints:
Modal dialogs & screen size
Tags in sub steps
Show easiest way to complete task
Introduction and conclusion
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9. Help in the application
Context sensitive help
PlatformUI.getWorkbench().getHelpSystem()
IWorkbenchHelpSystem.setHelp(Control control, String
contextId)
Help Listener (F1) automatically set on the control
ContextId used in the help plugin
Which help page should be shown
Help structure is important
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10. Info bobbles (control decoration)
Specific help for UI components
Good for use in dialogs and wizards
Saves the user having to look in the documentation
org.eclipse.jface.fieldassist.ControlDecoration
Since Eclipse 3.3
New ControlDecoration(Control control, int position)
setImage(Image image)
setDescriptionText(String text)
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11. Summary
Usability is just as important as features
Eclipse offers and supports various options
Usability under constant review…
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12. Questions?
Programming today is a race between software engineers
striving to build bigger and better idiot proof programs, and
the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots.
So far, the Universe is winning.
Rick Cook, The Wizardry Compiled
Visit stand 204 in the exhibition hall for more information
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