CSC 308 GUI Conventions


These conventions describe the standard layout and presentation style for the graphical user interfaces in CSC 308 requirements documents. The point of these conventions is two-fold:

  1. to provide very simple and straightforward drawing conventions, that can be met using almost any basic drawing editor;

  2. to provide conventions that are platform-independent in their look and feel.

The overall screen layout for a CSC 308 tool is shown in Figure 1.





Figure 1: Elements of the standard 308 tool GUI.



The contents of all tool-specific windows must follow the general style guidelines shown in the figure. Specifically: The meaning of "warranted" with regards to font and color choice means that the use of different fonts and colors must be based on specific improvements to functionality, not solely on aesthetics.

The standard command menu layout for all tools is shown in Figure 2.





Figure 2: Standard tool menus.



The contents shown for the File and Edit menus are expected to be standard for all tools, unless tool-specific functionality warrants some change. Normally, new functionality is added to the File and/or Edit menu by adding new items to the bottom of the menu, separated by a horizontal rule from the existing items.

Standard GUI control elements are shown in Figure 3.


Figure 3: Formating Details for GUI Elements.



If a tool needs to use addition GUI elements, they must be rendered in a style consistent with the standard elements.

If your team deviates from these conventions, the conventions that you use must be clearly specified in the "Document Conventions" section of the requirements specification document. In all cases, the GUI conventions must meet the following standards:






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