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Description
The quality of user interface designs largely depends on the aptitude of the designer. The ability to generate mental abstract models and characterize a target user audience helps greatly when conceiving a design. The dry cleaning point-of-sale industry lacks quality user interface designs. These impaired interfaces were compared with textbook

The quality of user interface designs largely depends on the aptitude of the designer. The ability to generate mental abstract models and characterize a target user audience helps greatly when conceiving a design. The dry cleaning point-of-sale industry lacks quality user interface designs. These impaired interfaces were compared with textbook design techniques to discover how applicable published interface design concepts are in practice. Four variations of a software package were deployed to end users. Each variation contained different design techniques. Surveyed users responded positively to interface design practices that were consistent and easy to learn. This followed textbook expectations. Users however responded poorly to customization options, an important feature according to textbook material. The study made conservative changes to the four interface variations provided to end-users. A more liberal approach may have yielded additional results.
ContributorsSmith, Andrew David (Author) / Nakamura, Mutsumi (Thesis director) / Gottesman, Aaron (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
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Description
Over the course of computing history there have been many ways for humans to pass information to computers. These different input types, at first, tended to be used one or two at a time for the users interfacing with computers. As time has progressed towards the present, however, many devices

Over the course of computing history there have been many ways for humans to pass information to computers. These different input types, at first, tended to be used one or two at a time for the users interfacing with computers. As time has progressed towards the present, however, many devices are beginning to make use of multiple different input types, and will likely continue to do so. With this happening, users need to be able to interact with single applications through a variety of ways without having to change the design or suffer a loss of functionality. This is important because having only one user interface, UI, across all input types is makes it easier for the user to learn and keeps all interactions consistent across the application. Some of the main input types in use today are touch screens, mice, microphones, and keyboards; all seen in Figure 1 below. Current design methods tend to focus on how well the users are able to learn and use a computing system. It is good to focus on those aspects, but it is important to address the issues that come along with using different input types, or in this case, multiple input types. UI design for touch screens, mice, microphones, and keyboards each requires satisfying a different set of needs. Due to this trend in single devices being used in many different input configurations, a "fully functional" UI design will need to address the needs of multiple input configurations. In this work, clashing concerns are described for the primary input sources for computers and suggests methodologies and techniques for designing a single UI that is reasonable for all of the input configurations.
ContributorsJohnson, David Bradley (Author) / Calliss, Debra (Thesis director) / Wilkerson, Kelly (Committee member) / Walker, Erin (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2013-05
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Description
\English is a programming language, a method of allowing programmers to write instructions such that a computer may understand and execute said instructions in the form of a program. Though many programming languages exist, this particular language is designed for ease of development and heavy optimizability in ways that no

\English is a programming language, a method of allowing programmers to write instructions such that a computer may understand and execute said instructions in the form of a program. Though many programming languages exist, this particular language is designed for ease of development and heavy optimizability in ways that no other programming language is. Building on the principles of Assembly level efficiency, referential integrity, and high order functionality, this language is able to produce extremely efficient code; meanwhile, programmatically defined English-based reusable syntax and a strong, static type system make \English easier to read and write than many existing programming languages. Its generalization of all language structures and components to operators leaves the language syntax open to project-specific syntactical structuring, making it more easily applicable in more cases. The thesis project requirements came in three parts: a compiler to compile \English code into NASM Assembly to produce a final program product; a standard library to define many of the basic operations of the language, including the creation of lists; and C translation library that would utilize \English properties to compile C code using the \English compiler. Though designed and partially coded, the compiler remains incomplete. The standard library, C translation library, and design of the language were completed. Additional tools regarding the language design and implementation were also created, including a Gedit syntax highlighting configuration file; usage documentation describing in a tutorial style the basic usage of the language; and more. Though the thesis project itself may be complete, the \English project will continue in order to produce a new language capable of the abilities possible with the design of this language.
ContributorsDavey, Connor (Author) / Gupta, Sandeep (Thesis director) / Bazzi, Rida (Committee member) / Calliss, Debra (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05