Category: CMUTR
Institution: Department of Computer Science, Carnegie
        Mellon University
Abstract: This paper reports on the results of a survey of user interface
        programming.
        The survey was widely distributed, and we received 74 responses.
        The results show that in today's applications, an average of 48%
        of the code is devoted to the user interface portion.
        The average time spent on the user interface portion is 45% 
        during the design phase, 50% during the implementation phase, 
        and 37% during the maintenance phase.
        34% of the systems were implemented using a toolkit, 27% used a
        UIMS, 14% used an interface builder, and 26% no tools.
        The projects using only toolkits spent the largest percentage of
        the time and code on the user interface (around 60%) compared to
        around 45% for those with no tools.
        This appears to be because the toolkit systems had more 
        sophisticated user interfaces.
        The projects using UIMSs or interface builders spent the least 
        percent of time and code on the user interface (around 41%)
        suggesting that these tools are effective.
        In general, people were happy with the tools they used, 
        especially the graphical interface builders.
        The most common problems people reported when developing a user
        interface included getting users' requirements, writing help 
        text, achieving consistency, learning how to use the tools 
        getting acceptable performance, and communicating among various
        parts of the program.
Number: CMU-CS-92-113
Bibtype: TechReport
Month: feb
Author: Brad A. Myers
        Mary Beth Rosson
Title: Survey on User Interface Programming
Year: 1992
Address: Pittsburgh, PA
Super: @CMUTR