ConExp2 GUI Concept
After accurate evaluation of ConExp's Usability in terms of its GUI we came to
the conclusion that there are some inconsistencies which we do not want to
replicate in ConExp2. Some of our findings can be found interspersed in
. Here, on the other hand, we aim to provide a
condensed and illustrated explanation for our concrete deviations from
ConExp's GUI combined with our reasoning why these deviations in fact are an
improvement over ConExp. If you rather want to learn more about our deviations
regarding ConExp's code base you should resort to the Developer Guide.
We found redundancy between the top menus and the top toolbar. The file & help menus are removed since every action found in the menus, except for "save as" for which we create a new button, is also available as a button in the top toolbar.
In addition, we add a global undo and a global redo button to the toolbar. Before, there were separate undo/redo buttons for the individual tab views and not every operation was undoable. Now, there is one consistent place for the undo/redo buttons and they work for all operations.
We remove the buttons in the top toolbar like "Build Lattice" and instead always show all tabs by default. The calculations that these buttons provided will now be executed on-demand when the according tab has been selected. Moreover, the order of the tabs is now fixed and is not anymore dependant on the order of the top button clicks.
We remove the update mode list box. It will not be needed anymore as we will run time-consuming resp. blocking calculations in their own thread keeping the GUI responsive either way. While such a calculation is under way we are showing a subtle indication, think of YouTube's spinning wheel, in order to make you aware that e.g. the lattice may change soon.
The file path is now presented in the topmost title bar. This is especially important as we want to allow several instances of ConExp2 running at the same time and, naturally, there should be a quick way to distinguish between the windows.
We found the tree panel to be mostly useless. For example, there is no way to have more than one file opened in the same window. Ultimately, the tree view is a nothing more than list view. The only two important functions it had were showing the file name and keeping a list of snapshots. These two functions are now moved to more appropriate places (title bar & lattice view). Removing the superfluous tree view gives us more space on the left. Which leads to...
View-specific settings are now shown consistently on the left instead of spread left & right.
The settings are now divided into Object, Attributes and Lattice using an accordeon menu. It is still possible to specify a subcontext.
For consistency Minimal Support and Confidence each use a slider now. It is still possible to enter values between 0 and 1 manually, of course.
Furthermore, the pie chart shows how many rules have minimal support.
