Datasheet

situation, but they have all been put to work in innovative applications to which Krause con-
tributed, such as Kai’s Power Tools, Kai’s Power GOO, Kai’s Photo Soap, Kai’s Power SHOW,
LivePicture, Poser, and Bryce.
You can find Kai’s Power Tools at www.corel.com, Poser at www.e-frontier.com,
and Bryce at
www.daz3d.com.
Big windows
The idea of using big windows is to immerse the user in the application. For example, if you play a
video, you may want to use the entire monitor space while hiding or minimizing the controls. Or if
you are in an application, you may want to hide whatever you can to make the window that the
user needs as big as possible, as shown in Figure 1.15. Monitors are only so big, and ideally, the
user should be able to see only what he or she needs to see for the task at hand. Making use of the
entire monitor space without any pixels consumed by a virtual desktop may be advantageous, but
you may be able to do more than that by having menus or toolbars disappear when they’re not
needed. Making use of all the space available can help users keep their attention on what’s most
important to them.
FIGURE 1.15
The default for the 3D modeling, rendering, and animation program Bryce is to basically take over your
whole computer screen as one big window, which works well.
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Exploring New User Interface Techniques
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