Squeezing Java Swing Components Into a Cell Phone

September 13, 2006
2:50 pm - 4:00 pm
Halligan 111
Speaker: Bill Barnert, SavaJe Technologies
Host: Rob Jacob

Abstract

The Java UI Components ("Swing") were designed originally for a workstation with a mouse, cursor,lots of keys and meta-keys, and resizable windows. A mobile phone has a tiny screen, no mouse or cursor, no Tab key, no Shift key, no Alt key, well, you get the idea. While MIDP and Java ME were good starts in the right direction, the challenge to design a USABLE set of Swing components customized for a mobile phone was a formidable task. Over the course of (slightly more than) a year, the design team at SavaJe created the SavaJe Swing Look and Feel, adding navigation & focus concepts, key press policies, and additional colors. In this talk, Bill will take you on a tour of that year, tell you about the challenges faced and how they were handled, and he will show the final product, shipping on phones in Q2 2006. He may also show some future ideas not yet ready for Prime Time.

Bill Barnert is a member of the SavaJe User Experience Design Team. He recently received his Masters in HCI from the Tufts School of Engineering Computer Science Dept., doing research on One- and Two-Handed Direct and Indirect Computer Interaction. He received an Sc.B. in Computer Science Engineering from Brown in 1978. In the quarter century between, he designed & implemented user interfaces for Instron and Teradyne.He has a patent pending that he co-designed with Karen Donoghue (Tufts '87) on a system to allow you to send data to the person that you are currently on a call with.