The Iceberg Secret: Napkin Look & Feel!

Intended Audience:
If you've ever had to develop a GUI mock-up or prototype for someone in "management" before... this one's for you!



The Secret:
Let me introduce you to "The Iceberg Secret" of UI development. From Joel on Software:

You know how an iceberg is 90% underwater? Well, most software is like that too -- there's a pretty user interface that takes about 10% of the work, and then 90% of the programming work is under the covers. And if you take into account the fact that about half of your time is spent fixing bugs, the UI only takes 5% of the work. And if you limit yourself to the visual part of the UI, the pixels, what you would see in PowerPoint, now we're talking less than 1%.

That's not the secret. The secret is that People Who Aren't Programmers Do Not Understand This.

The Solution: (but only if you're a Java Swing developer)

The solution to your prototype woes is called the "Napkin" Look & Feel. It makes your GUI reflect the current state of its development: as if it was all written on a napkin during lunch and then magically scanned into a mock-up.



Some of the underwhelming (sarcasm) features:

• Crinkled paper background.
• Randomly rendered lines (aka hand-drawn with a pen) for outlines, borders, boxes, etc.
• Disabled == erased... even images get erased!
• Hand-written fonts.
• Menus and pop-ups... sticky notes!!!
  

(My favourite part is the "sticky notes" theming for menus and pop-up menus. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.)


So, the next time the word "prototype" comes to mind... just think "Napkin"!


About the author: When the word "prototype" comes to Ethan's mind... he thinks "Napkin"!