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Object-oriented user interface
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<h2 id="relationship-to-other-user-interface-ideas">Relationship to other user interface ideas</h2> <p>There is a great deal of potential synergy between the OOUI concept and other important ideas in user interface design including: </p> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Graphical_user_interface/wBlQFWDP">graphical user interface</a> (GUI)</li> <li><a href="/facts/Direct_manipulation_interface/XvzG3fQq">direct manipulation interface</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Interface_metaphor/Ad7gBsJB">interface metaphor</a></li></ul> <p>Many futuristic imaginings of user interfaces rely heavily on OOUI and especially OOGUI concepts.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> However there are many examples of user interfaces that implement one or more of those other ideas, but which are not in fact OOUIs - though they are often wrongly labelled as OOUIs.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> Conversely, there are examples of OOUIs that are neither graphical, nor employ direct manipulation techniques, nor employ strong metaphors. For example, the earliest versions of the <a href="/facts/Smalltalk/Ru2UPVDE">Smalltalk</a> programming language had a <a href="/facts/Command_line_interface/R9JpGmXQ">command line interface</a> that was nonetheless also clearly an OOUI,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> though it subsequently became better known for its pioneering role in the development of GUIs, direct manipulation and visual metaphors. </p> <h2 id="relationship-to-object-oriented-programming">Relationship to object-oriented programming</h2> <p>Although there are many conceptual parallels between OOUIs and <a href="/facts/Object-oriented_programming/TxNMEcao">object-oriented programming</a>, it does not follow that an OOUI has to be implemented using an <a href="/facts/Object-oriented_programming_language/TxNMEcao">object-oriented programming language</a>. </p><p>The guidelines for <a href="/facts/IBM_Common_User_Access/4qhD1WvG">IBM's Common User Access</a> (CUA), (possibly the most comprehensive attempt at defining a standard for OOUI design) stated that 'while object-oriented programming can facilitate the development of an object-oriented user interface, it is not a pre-requisite. An object-oriented user interface can be developed with more traditional programming languages and tools.'<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> </p><p> However, there are strong synergies. <a href="/facts/Larry_Tesler/0N6fCKhH">Larry Tesler</a>, who left <a href="/facts/Xerox_PARC/fh2Su0k9">Xerox PARC</a> in 1980 to join <a href="/facts/Apple_Inc./oTJYta3k">Apple</a> underlined the relationship: </p><blockquote><p>Many observers have hypothesized that [the] <a href="/facts/Smalltalk/Ru2UPVDE">Smalltalk</a> user interface and the Smalltalk language are separable innovations. Consequently, most systems influenced by the Smalltalk user interface have been engineered without resorting to Smalltalk’s implementation approach. At Apple, after using <a href="/facts/Pascal_(programming_language)/b3yvp8bF">Pascal</a> to implement six initial applications for <a href="/facts/Apple_Lisa/PJpJhNRK">Lisa</a>, we discovered compelling reasons to change our programming language to incorporate more ideas from Smalltalk. Lisa applications are now written in the language <a href="/facts/Clascal/2b1zamuY">Clascal</a>, an extension of Pascal featuring objects, classes, subclasses, and procedure invocation by message-passing.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a></p></blockquote> <h2 id="relationship-to-domain-object-modelling">Relationship to domain object modelling</h2> <p>There is also an obvious synergy between the concept of an OOUI and the idea of constructing software from <a href="/facts/Business_object_(computer_science)/qRaCFz1u">domain objects</a>. However, it does not follow that the objects that a user sees and interacts within an OOUI have to correspond to the <a href="/facts/Business_object_(computer_science)/qRaCFz1u">domain objects</a> on which the application is built. </p><p>The <a href="/facts/IBM_Common_User_Access/4qhD1WvG">CUA</a> guidelines stated that 'In an object-oriented user interface, the objects that a user works with do not necessarily correspond to the objects or modules of code, that a programmer used to create the product.'<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> The basic design methods described in CUA were refined further into the OVID<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> method which used <a href="/facts/Unified_Modeling_Language/3tlNS0tH">UML</a> to model the interface. </p><p>Mark van Harmelen states that 'Object-oriented user interface design does not require designers to take an object-oriented view of the problem from the beginning of the project. Furthermore, even if designers take an object-oriented perspective throughout, they will benefit from focusing separately on the object model and the object-oriented user interface design.'<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a> </p><p>By contrast, the <a href="/facts/Naked_objects/1A2JQVYt">naked objects</a> pattern is an approach to the design of applications that, at least in its naive form, enforces a direct correspondence between the objects represented in the OOUI and the underlying domain objects, auto-generating the former from the latter.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Nielsen, J., Usability Engineering. 1993, San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann / Academic Press <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Collins, D., Designing Object-oriented User interfaces. 1995, Redwood City, CA: Benjamin/Cummings <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Raskin, J., The Humane Interface. 2000, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley / ACM Press <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Dayton, Tom. "Object-Oriented GUIs are the Future". Presto Innovation Blog. Retrieved 8 March 2017. <a href="http://www.prestoinnovation.com/blog/2016/11/28/object-oriented-guis-are-the-future" target="_blank">http://www.prestoinnovation.com/blog/2016/11/28/object-oriented-guis-are-the-future</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Constantine, L. and L. Lockwood, Software for use. 1999: Addison-Wesley <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Kay, A., The early history of Smalltalk, in History of Programming Languages, T. Bergin and R. Gibson, Editors. 1996, Addison-Wesley / ACM Press: Reading, MA. p. 511-. <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>IBM, Common User Access - Guide to User Interface Design. 1991, IBM: Cary, North Carolina. <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Tesler, L. Object Oriented User Interfaces and Object Oriented Languages. in ACM Conference n Personal and Small Computers. 1983. New York: ACM. <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>IBM, Common User Access - Guide to User Interface Design. 1991, IBM: Cary, North Carolina. <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Dave Roberts, Dick Berry, Scott Isensee & John Mullaly, Designing for the User with OVID: Bridging User Interface Design and Software Engineering MacMillan, 1998 <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>van Harmelen, M., ed. Object Modelling and User Interface Design. 2001, Addison-Wesley: Reading, MA. <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>Pawson, R., Naked Objects, Ph.D Thesis, 2004, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>