Please note that the Mac standard for capitalization in menus is Title caps, meaning that commands on menu and menu titles should be capitalized exactly as one would a book title or a newspaper article title.
Splash Screen
Here is what people will see when they first open the program! WOO.
Map
Now, here is what people will see after the splash screen has gone away.
We will keep the same default we have now-- the large earthquakes from the past two weeks will be displayed on the map. Please note that at the bottom of the map there is a status bar, indicating that n earthquakes were found with the default criteria. Once the user has changed the criteria to find their own earthquakes the message will say "n earthquakes found with your criteria. This message will always appear on the left side of the status bar and the right side will continue to be used for event information as the user mouses over events.
Buttons
The Map Key button, found at the top right of the screen brings up this little window, which is attached to the toolbar at the top of the map. Users can get rid of it by pressing "Close" or by pressing the Map Key button again.
Available buttons include Zoom In, Zoom Out, Drag, and Get New Earthquakes. I would think that all of these are self-explanatory except for Get New Earthquakes because they exist in the current GEE and I intend for the to behave in the same manner.
One small note: Initially, the Zoom Out button should be disabled, as the user cannot possibly be more zoomed out at this point.
Get New Earthquakes is a new face on the block, however, and I must explain. This button, when pressed, brings up the Displayed Earthquakes Editor, which you will see below.
Displayed Earthquakes Editor
Here the user can change the criteria for events and look at event information listed in the table on the right. When changing event criteria, the user changes their settings in all of the necessary boxes and then clicks Get Earthquakes, which then changes the list of earthquakes displayed in the table to the right and the earthquakes on the map.
Note the status indicator in the top right of the window, which will be whirling around while GEE is getting the new earthquakes!
Just as a side note, when a user wants to change the date, they will be using the pull-down calendar, which can be accessed by pressing the pulldown buttons to the right of the date entry field. You may want to check out the Calendar widget func spec now. You may not. Do what you will.
Menus
Please note that the Mac standard for capitalization in menus is Title caps, meaning that commands on menu and menu titles should be capitalized exactly as one would a book title or a newspaper article title.
Below you'll see a representation of approximately what the Mac version menus should look like. Menus are important to how users learn to use the program as they are a way to see what the program can do without actually invoking any commands. Therefore, all functions from the toolbar can be found in the menus.
Application Menu
As is the standard with Macs, the About GEE... info can be found in this menu. This will bring up a dialog box with all of our names and the grant information 'n' such. The "..." follows all menu items that will bring up a separate window or will require additional input from the user before completing a command. Hide and Quit with their associated shortcuts will also be found here as this is the norm for Apple. Note that in some of the menus there are groupings according to the type of command, breaking things down into more digestible chunks.
File Menu
Though GEE will now be used to make .gee documents, it is not really a document-based application in the traditional sense, therefore the File menu does not have to be very complicated. All we need are ways to open previously created .gee files and the other file types we inted to support and ways to save the .gee files our users create. I thought it would be handy to include an Open Recent option as well. The Print option should bring up a dialog box, to be designed at a later date by me, which will allow the user to print to a printer or convert to .pdf. It is my opinion that a print should consist of the map with earthquakes and then a table consisting of all of the relevent event information. So, basically, it will be what the user sees on the screen minus the controls because the user's not going to be pushing the buttons on the paper now are they?
Edit Menu
Edit consists of Undo and Redo. Undo should reverse the last command of the following functions: Zoom In, Zoom Out, and the Get Earthquakes button from the Displayed Earthquakes Editor controls. That is all. Redo simply reverses the effects of the last Undo command.
View Menu
This menu consists of Zoom In and Zoom Out and their little icons that match the toolbar.
Tools Menu
Tools consist of the Drag Tool and the Get New Earthquakes option that brings up the Displayed Earthquakes Editor.
Window Menu
The window menu consists of all the currently open windows and includes the standard options: Minimize and Bring All to Front.
Help Menu
The Help menu includes a Program Overview..., which will essentially be a "getting started" guide that will help a new user get oriented. There is also a Shortcuts... command, which brings up a a dialog box similar to the one you see below.
In the Case of an Error
What happens if the user opens the program and it is unable to retrieve the last earthquakes in the past two weeks? Koalas get sad and cry.
That is why we need to help them out and make sure they understand what the problem is and how they can fix it.
Two reasons. Two.
There are basically two reasons why the program would not be able to retrieve this data:
#It cannot connect to the internet
#There are problems with the server
If either of these things happens, the map will look like the image below.
The map is shaded and you have your little error triangle icon in the middle. It stays like this for a few seconds and then the error triangle icon begins shrinking and moving downward, landing in the status bar at the bottom of the window. Simultaneously, the map will be brightening to its normal level. Then things will end up like the image below.
Once the error triangle icon reaches the status bar, it turns into a button, which the user can click on to get more information about the problem and how they can fix it. After this button has appeared, a brief error message appears in bold to the right. For problems with the internet connection, it will say, "GEE was unable to connect to the internet." For problems with the server it will say, "There is a problem with GEE's servers." The button will have a tooltip that says, "Click for more information about the problem." Soooo... what happens when you click on the button?
What happens when you click on the button
If it's an internet connection problem, this window appears:
In the case of a server error, this one appears
Now the koala understands the problem fully and can either click "Close" or use the red candy button to get rid of the window.
Once the problem is solved, the error triangle icon and the error message disappear from the taskbar and everything functions normally.
Now you can go on to the Station Client Func Spec!
