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The initial impression that you get with
this book is that it is full colour. Actually I believe that
this is important. It shows that the authors understand the
importance of colour in visual communication and were able to
persuade the publisher that full colour was essential to get
the message across.
History
The Java Look and Feel is surface rendering
for the Swing/JFC Java GUI components which is preferred by
Sun. It is essentially a Sun corporate rendering for a
windowing environment. It is intended to give a cross platform
uniformity to Java applications and is offered as an
alternative to the Windows, Motif and Mac look and feels. It
was designed by Chris Ryan and was code-named "Metal".
It replaced the somewhat bolder and more radical "Organic"
L&F. Over the last 18 months, I have come to appreciate
the quality of Ryan's perception with this design. In some
ways it was conservative but essentially it was pragmatic. The
book defining how to use and follow that singular vision has
been awaited for a while.
Tour
The first 25 pages are taken up presenting
the JFC and giving a quick tour of what it looks like and what
can be done with it. There is even a little Swing programming
showing how to switch look and feel.
It then moves on to talk about initial
design considerations: Application vs Applet; Accessibility;
Internationalisation & Localisation; use of Layout
Managers etc.. All of this needed to be said, I suppose, but
its been said so many times elsewhere.
Visual Design
Around page 40 the book swings (pun
intended) into the design guidelines that we were after. It
introduces Themes and discusses in detail the available
colours and fonts in JLF, then quickly moves into the use of
capitalisation and fonts. A Darrell Sano style design grid is
introduced. I thought that there was some fine attention to
detail in this section. It finishes off with some sensible
advice on the use of animation.
Chapter 5 looks at some of the problems
involved in using colours and graphics across platforms. The
chapter focuses on a technical discussion of designing icons
and drawing them. This is a pragmatic practitioners approach
and there is no discussion of choosing images for icons or
what makes a good icon. As I read on into the book, it
occurred to me that it is essential that the reader has read
and understood Desining Visual Interfaces by Mullet &
Sano. The JLF creators have and there is a lot of assumed
knowledge. The book has a "do this, do that"
approach which was common with other guideline book from
Microsoft or IBM. They tend to preach without spending much
time to explain. This book does go right down to the pixel
level to explain how certain visual effects are produced.
Chapter 6 moves onto behaviour i.e. user
input discussing mouse and keyboard and keyboard shortcuts. It
all seems rather short for such a big topic.
Reference
From page 95 onwards the rest of the book
is a component by component reference on how to use them and
what should be expected by a Guideline compliant. The advice
at times is patchy and unsubstantiated. I homed in on Tab
Panes.
- Use Headline captilisation
- Provide mnemonics for keyboard operation
- Do not nest tabs
- Do not use multiple rows of tabs
Well Yes! but more explanation is needed. I
would also question the hard rule on nested tabs. In general I
know many people would hold this rule but like many rules it
is there to broken - in the hands of a skilled designer.
It is also true to say that much of what is
here, tells you what is available and how to set the
properties to achieve certain results. There is little advice
on why you should use it or when it is applicable.
Summary
In summary, its a visually stunning book.
The advice isn't so stunning but its not so bad either. Java
needed this book and it must be essential reading for Java
Application developers. I'm not so sure about Applet
developers and the book doesn't spend any time on web design
issues. It takes the "stuff the Applet in a box on the
page" approach and forget about all that Browser clobber
around it which will not even match the JLF in the Applet.
A lot of the content can be found on
existing books on Swing programming. The advantage here is
that it is condensed for the interaction designer and not
polluted with code examples.
Its important to remember that some of the
problems of this book stem from the lack of proper product
focus in the whole Swing initiative. Swing always had a
personality problem and the JLF Guidelines reflect that.
Finally, there is also a lot of assummed
knowledge and the reader really should be conversant with a
lot of other texts. This is a text which talks to the
professional interaction designer and is written by
professional interaction designers. Sadly too many Java App.
developers aren't professional interaction designers.
Yet another book which will get better in a
future addition. Probably a thicker future addition.
Recommendation
3/5 - Stunning. Necessary. "Must have".
The large amount of assumed knowledge and the at times
superficial explanations make it too much like other
disappointing guideline books which went before. Sorry, Sun!
Needs to offer more advice on usage and proper explanation
before it will rate higher. |
