Design as Exploration: Creating Interface Alternatives through Parallel Authoring and Runtime Tuning (UIST 2008)

Commented On:
Adam Griffin
Benjamin Carsten
Brad Twitty

Summary:
This paper discuses a new program they wrote that allows for the fine tuning of interface settings called Juxtapose. This program has a few primary features. The first of which lets the designer view multiple versions of the interface at once. Each of these correspond to separate tabs of the same code. The designer can then modify the code separately to make real time changes to the interfaces he sees. The other main feature it has is a board with sliders that is separate from the computer. These can be programmed with variables so that sliding the variables will change the values in real time. A third main feature was the ability to have the events being done to one interface happen on all of the interfaces concurrently. The final main features was the ability to save setting of variables so that they could be restored at a future time for testing.

Discussion:
This technology seems to be early in its lifetime. You can only control booleans and integers currently. I do believe that if the technology could be refined and incorporated into common IDE such as visual studio or eclipse than it would be extremely useful. A good program with a poor interface is just as sure to fail as a poor program. This software makes it very fast to quickly change the setting for fine tuning interfaces to what works. The multiple interfaces at once make it not only good for your own testing, but for showing to the stakeholders of the project. You could have multiple interface options and then if they want to pick and choose from the interfaces, you could quickly take parts of one and apply it to the other ones. This would make it easier to create the interface they want instead of only have part of it. The idea seems good, although bringing the board around would be a hassle. If given time I am sure part of the idea will become more common for projects.