Publications Details

Using the Remote Access Protocol for usability evaluation in X Windows

Edwards, T.

The automatic evaluation of graphical user interfaces can help reduce development costs in the creation of new designs or modification of existing designs. Several standards for the X Window System have been proposed or implemented that could greatly reduce the time spent evaluating GUIs. We implemented a User Interface Testbed (UseIT) based on the proposed Remote Access Protocol (RAP) standard. UseIT was created to automatically record an end user`s interaction with a Motif GUI application without modification or re-linking of existing code. The recorded interaction could then be replayed or displayed visually for interpretation by a human factors specialist. The end goal was to recreate the GUI and automatically recommend design changes based upon the interactions.