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ActorStudio: An interactive user interface editor

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Human Computer Interaction (VCHCI 1993)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 733))

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Abstract

ActorStudio is a graphical, interactive user interface editor. It is targeted for designing application specific interaction techniques referred to as actors. Actors can be combined to actor hierarchies describing complicated user interfaces. An actor, in turn, can be built from components that define the basic and the reactive appearances, and the behavior of the actor. ActorStudio provides the designer components that are easy to comprehend. They can be combined to form a user interface by using direct manipulation edit actions. To help the designer in making better design decisions ActorStudio offers several different views to the user interface under development. For instance, the views examine the typography, logical structure, behavior and the simulation of the user interface.

As a result of edit actions, ActorStudio produces a description of a user interface under development in a language called Screenplay. This description can be stored or used to create a simulation of the user interface. Furthermore, the description can be used to analyze the user interface against a set of user interface guidelines, which are written as rules. A separate tool called Critic has been developed for that purpose.

ActorStudio has been implemented for Macintoshes using Common Lisp and CLOS. It also uses an object oriented toolkit called WimperActors developed in Helsinki University of Technology.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Ora Lassila

    Present address: Carnegie-Mellon University, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Helsinki University of Technology, Otakaari 1, SF-02150, Espoo, Finland

    Marja-Riitta Koivunen, Ora Lassila, Juha Ahvo, Minna Rankinen, Sirpa Riihiaho & Bodil Riihinen

Authors
  1. Marja-Riitta Koivunen
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  2. Ora Lassila
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  3. Juha Ahvo
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  4. Minna Rankinen
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  5. Sirpa Riihiaho
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  6. Bodil Riihinen
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Editor information

Thomas Grechenig Manfred Tscheligi

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© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Koivunen, MR., Lassila, O., Ahvo, J., Rankinen, M., Riihiaho, S., Riihinen, B. (1993). ActorStudio: An interactive user interface editor. In: Grechenig, T., Tscheligi, M. (eds) Human Computer Interaction. VCHCI 1993. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 733. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57312-7_78

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57312-7_78

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-57312-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48052-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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