Professional Java User Interfaces

Chapter 3. Java GUI Design

In this chapter we introduce user interface design for the Java platform, focusing our attention on J2SE GUIs. The chapter is structured as follows:

3.1, Java technology for GUIs introduces the components that Java provides for building user interfaces.

3.2, Cost-driven design describes how cost constraints can be taken into account in user interface development.

3.3, Exploring the design space for a point chooser gives some examples of practical GUI design, using as an example the design of a component for selecting points on the earth surface.

3.4, Design guidelines for the Java platform introduces the idea of user interface design guidelines, specifically those for Java.

3.5, The Java look and feel design guidelines describes the Java look and feel guidelines in detail.

Java technology for GUIs

This book deals principally with graphical user interfaces composed of visual components. This kind of interface is made up of widgets and windows, following the well-established syntax of point-and-click GUIs.

Assembling the components

This section discusses the basic organization of a Java-based GUI. Java GUIs are organized in reusable units that are directly mapped onto groups of Java classes. For example, in the Swing library a visual tree component (also called an expandable list) is implemented as a set of more than a dozen standard classes and interfaces that can be configured or specialized as necessary. Such classes include specialized event listeners, cell renderer, ...