Lapidary
The Lapidary interface design tool is a demonstrational
system that allows the graphics and run-time
behaviors that
go inside an application window
to be specified pictorially.
In particular, Lapidary allows the designer to draw example pictures of
application-specific graphical objects
that the end user will manipulate (such as boxes and arrows, or
elements of a list),
the feedback that shows which objects are selected (such as
small boxes on the sides and corners of an object), and the dynamic
feedback objects (such as hair-line boxes to show where an object is being
dragged).
The run-time behavior of all these objects can be specified
in a straightforward way using constraints, demonstration, and
dialog boxes that allow
the designer to provide abstract descriptions of the
interactive response to the input devices.
Lapidary generalizes from these specific example pictures and behaviors
to create prototype objects and behaviors from which instances can be made at
run-time.
A novel feature of Lapidary's implementation is its use of
constraints that have been explicitly specified by the designer
to help it generalize example objects and behaviors, and to guide
it in making inferences.
To find out more about Lapidary, you can read:
``Demonstrational and Constraint-Based Techniques for
Pictorially Specifying Application Objects and Behaviors'',
Bradley T. Vander Zanden and
Brad Myers,
ACM Transactions on Computer Human Interaction, 2(4), Dec. 1995,
308-356.
Available via anonymous ftp to cs.utk.edu in
pub/bvz/papers/lapidary.ps.Z.