Customer Reviews

LabVIEW GUI: Essential Techniques

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a long-time LabVIEW programmer, I know how easy it is to create rich, graphical user interfaces with LabVIEW. I also know how frustrating it is to have an end user sit down in front of my LabVIEW masterpiece and not have a clue of what to do. In his easy to read style, Dave explains effective user interface design and how to apply it to test and measurement.

I especially appreciated Ch. 6 "Graphic Design for Engineers 101 - A Crash Course in Layout and Design." The discussion on designing an effective layout and the provided templates are excellent.

As a long-time LabVIEW developer, one of the things I like about LabVIEW is how easy it is to whip up a sharp looking GUI. However, along with this easy-of-use comes a responsibility to develop a user-friendly GUI as well. Though the title of this book implies that it only addresses GUI design, there is a significant amount of time spent on software engineering, understanding users, graphic design and coding techniques. This book is a whopper at over 500 pages, and there is no skimping on discussion of any of these topics.

As a developer who is equally at home with computers and people, it is hard to remember that I am in the minority, and the majority of users of my software are likely to be technophobes. The first 5 chapters of this book address user expectations and how, in a deterministic manner, to come up with a GUI that will be friendly to the target users.

Chapter 6, as another reviewer mentioned, is a crash course in graphic design. Over 50 pages of "put this here", "choose these colors", and "use this font". A great reference.

Chapters 7-9 discuss the mechanics of how to make a good GUI. All the regulars are here: VI Server, Custom Menus, Queue and Event-driven architectures, and Property/Attribute Nodes. But there is some neat stuff I have not seen elsewhere, such as how to make pop-up menus, custom toolbar buttons and floating menus/toolbars with minimum hassle and overhead.

Chapter 10 is a guide to everything graphics. It covers different image formats (jpg, bmp, png, etc.), transparency, where to get "free" graphics, as well as a primer on Adobe Photoshop.

The rest of the book (chapters 11 & 12, plus appendix A) are use cases.

In the back of the book is a CD-ROM with most of the examples, plus a ton of great free stuff (e.g., custom buttons) and trial stuff (e.g., Adobe Photoshop).

Complaints: this book is getting a bit long in the tooth. LabVIEW 7 is out with user-defined events, and 8 will be out shortly with a whole new development paradigm. While much of this book remains relevent, some parts are in need of updating (property nodes have been out how long now???).

My other complaint is that this book looks like a pre-publication proof. Nearly every page has a major spelling or grammar error. It is as if no one could make it through the 500+ pages for a final proof before printing. As an example, from page 181: "At this point, it should be stressed that the visual hierarchy is your GUI panels should be governing by more than aesthetic considerations alone." (yes, this is an exact quote)

The book is well written and the examples are extremely useful. I have been programming in LabVIEW for 10 years and found the book to be very helpful for improving my programming techniques. My latest user interface is significantly improved over my previous efforts.