Tag: keyboard

Makeup on a zombie – Java Swing UX improvements

Even if they are outdated, GUI-based desktop applications won’t disappear anytime soon. But they should get improved user experience (UX) if possible. Some things are surprisingly easy to achieve. This is an example of Java Swing and keyboard handling.

When I learned Java programming in 1997, the AWT classes were the default way to create graphical user interfaces. The AWT widgets were not very sophisticated and really ugly, so it is no surprise they were replaced by a new widget toolkit, called “Swing”, as soon as possible. At the end of 1998, the Swing graphical API was the default way to develop GUIs for desktop applications on the Java platform.

Today, twenty years later, the Swing API is still part of the Java core SDK and ready for your adventures in GUI creation. But time has taken a toll on the technology. The widgets, once displayed with a state-of-the-art design, look really outdated. Swing introduced the concept of pluggable “Look-and-Feels” (L&F), so you could essentially re-skin your interface with a few lines of code, but all L&Fs look ugly and feel cumbersome now. You can say that Java Swing is a zombie: It is still available and in use in its latest development state, but makes no progress in regard of improvements. If software development follows one rule, it is that software that isn’t actively developed anymore is dead.

My personal date when Java Swing died was the day Chet Haase (author of the Java Swing book “Filthy Rich Clients”) left Sun Microsystems to work for Adobe. That was in 2008. The technology received several important updates since then, but soon after, JavaFX got on the stage (and left it, and went back on, left it again, and is now an optional download for the Java SDK). Desktop GUIs are even more dead than Java Swing, because “mobile first” and “web second” don’t leave much room for “desktop third”. Consequentially, Java FX will not receive support from Oracle after 2022.

But there are still plenty of desktop applications and they won’t go away anytime soon. There is a valid use case for a locally installed program with a graphical user interface on a physical computer. And there are still lots of “legacy systems” that need maintenance and improvements. Most of them are entangled with their UI toolkit of choice – a choice made before 2007, when “mobile first” wasn’t even available as an option.

Because those legacy systems still exist and are used, their users want to experience the look and feel of today’s applications. And this is where the fun begins: You apply makeup on a zombie to let it appear a little bit less ugly than it really is.

Recently, my task was to improve the keyboard handling of a Java Swing desktop application. It was surprisingly easy to add a tad of modern “feel”, and this gives me hope that the zombie might stay semi-alive longer than I thought. As you might already have guessed, StackOverflow is a goldmine for answers on ancient technology. Here are my first few improvements and their respective answer on StackOverflow:

  • Let’s suppose you want or need to interact with your application without a mouse or touchscreen. Your first attempt to start an interaction is to press the “menu” key in order to activate the application menu. This would be the “Alt” key on a windows system. For modern applications, your input focus is now at the menu bar. In Java Swing applications, nothing happens. You have to press “Alt” and a mnemonic character to enter a specific menu. If you want to reduce the initial hurdle to just one key, you need to teach all your Java Swing menus to react to the “Alt” key alone: https://stackoverflow.com/a/8659116
  • Speaking of focus, in modern applications you can move your focus by using the arrow keys. Java Swing still thinks that “Tab” and “Shift+Tab” is the pinnacle of focus control. If you want to improve the behavior (and therefore the “feel”) of your focus traversal, you can do it globally for your application: https://stackoverflow.com/a/8255423
  • And if you want to enable the Return/Enter key for button activation, you can do it with just one line: https://stackoverflow.com/a/440536

If you happen to work on a Java Swing application and want some cheap user experience upgrades, I’ve assembled all the knowledge above into a neat little class that you can use as an add-on utility class: https://github.com/dlindner/java-swing-ux/blob/master/src/com/schneide/swing/ux/KeyboardUX.java

What are your makeup tips for zombies?

On developer workplace ergonomics

Most developers don’t care much about their working equipment, especially their intimate triple. That’s a missed opportunity.

workplace_failMost developers don’t care much about their working equipment. The company they work in typically provides them a rather powerful computer with a mediocre monitor and a low-cost pair of keyboard and mouse. They’ll be given a regular chair at a regular desk in a regular office cubicle. And then they are expected (and expect themselves) to achieve outstanding results.

The broken triple

First of all, most developers are never asked about their favorite immediate work equipment: keyboard, mouse and monitor.

With today’s digitally driven flat-screens, the monitor quality is mostly sufficient for programming. It’s rather a question of screen real estate, device quantity and possibility of adjustments. Monitors get cheaper continuously.

The mouse is the second relevant input device for developers. But most developers spend more money on their daily travel than their employer spent for their mices. A good mouse has an optimal grip, a low monthly mouse mile count, enough buttons and wheels for your tasks, your favorite color and is still dirt cheap compared to the shirt you wear.

The keyboard is the most relevant device on a programmer’s desk. Your typing speed directly relies on your ability to make friends with your keyboard. Amazingly, every serious developer has her own favorite layout, keystroke behavior and general equipment. But most developers still stick to a bulk keyboard they were never asked about and would never use at home. A good keyboard matches your fingertips perfectly and won’t be much more expensive than the mouse.

Missed opportunities

The failure is two-fold: The employer misses the opportunity to increase developer productivtiy with very little financial investment and the developer misses the opportunity to clearly state her personal preferences concerning her closest implements.

Most employers will argue that it would place a heavy burden on the technical administration and the buying department to fit everybody with her personal devices. That’s probably true, but it’s nearly a one-time effort multiplied by your employee count, as most devices last several years. But it’s an ongoing effort for every developer to deliver top-notch results with cumbersome equipment. Most developers will last several years, too.

Some developers will state that they are happy with their devices. It really might be optimal, but it’s likely that the developer just hasn’t tried out alternatives yet.

Perhaps your organizational culture treats uniformity as professionality. Then why are you allowed to have different haircuts and individual ties?

Room for improvement

Our way to improve our workplaces was to introduce an annual “Creativity Budget” for every employee. It’s a fair amount of money destined to use one’s own creativity to improve productivity. It could also have been named “Productivity Budget”, but that would miss the very important part about creative solutions. There is no formal measurement of productivity and only loose rules on what not to do with the money. Above all, it’s a sign to the developer that she’s expected to personally care for her work environment, her equipment and her productivity. And that she’s not expected to do that without budget.

The Creativity Budget outcome

The most surprising fact about our budgets was that nearly none got fully spent. Most developers had very clear ideas on what to improve and just realized them – without further budget considerations. On top of that, everybody dared to express their preferences, without fear of overbearance. It’s not a big investment, but a very worthwile one.