2D User Interfaces

GUI Layout

Current graphical user interfaces (GUIs) describe how user interfaces elements (i.e., widgets) are placed inside a window via layout mechanisms. Layout becomes particularly relevant, when the size of the window or the orientation of the device is changed, as the layout mechanism also incorporates the resizing behaviour. This work investigates new layout mechanisms that are more powerful than all other alternatives, while still being easy-to-understand. Part of the work focuses on a new GUI builders to enable designers to use the new layouts for the creation of flexible GUI layouts. Older work explored a new technology, User Interface Façades, that let end-users adapt the user interface of arbitrary applications to their needs without resorting to coding, through drag-and-drop mechanims.

Text Entry & Learning

One line of research in this project concentrates on models to predict text entry rates for novice users. All other models focus on experts only, which provides only information about peak speeds, which many users never reach. Recent work in this project investigates new text entry methods for mobile devices, both button-based (Less-Tap) as well as on touch screens. Another line of research focuses on predictive models to simulate the transition of novices to experts, i.e., the learning of new text entry techniques

Our publications in this area