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User Interfaces and Usability for Embedded Systems

• "Designing User Interfaces", Embedded Systems Programming, February 1995, pp. 42-50. This article deals with managing user events, or the input side of the interface. Not available on the ESP web site, but it is on their archive CD.
  
  
• "Data Structures for User Interfaces", Embedded Systems Programming, January 1996, pp. 46-64. This article discusses the data structures used to manage the display, or the output side of the interface. Not available on the ESP web site, but it is on their archive CD.
  
  
• Designing User Interfaces: What Does the Customer Really Want?Embedded Systems Programming, may1996, pp. 24-32. This article discusses usability issues in the design of embedded products, and also addresses the engineers role in the process of making a product usable.
  
  
• Graphics Libraries for Embedded Systems Embedded Systems Programming, August 1997, pp. 34-48. This review feature a number of commercial graphics libraries available from some of the major RTOS vendors.
  
  
• Safe Systems Through Better User Interfaces Embedded Systems Programming, August 1998, pp. 32-46. This article discussed the trade-offs between safety and usability when designing the interactions between user and machine.
  
  
• CORBA for Embedded Systems, Embedded Systems Programming, October 1998. This articles discusses CORBA, an internet protocol for passing data and operation requests between applications or devices. This article presents it as an alternative to HTTP.
  
  
• Embedded Graphics Part 1: Bitmaps and Fonts Embedded Systems Programming, July 1999. This article discussed the use of graphics in embedded systems, and in particular methods for converting bitmaps and fonts from a PC to a form suitable for compiling into an embedded system. The companion page for this article contains downloadable code and executables.
  
  
• Embedded Graphics Part 2: Objects and Refreshing the Display, Embedded Systems Programming, August 1999. This article discusses structures that can be used to control objects on the display to allow interactive interfaces to be built. Different refresh policies are examined, which provide varying amounts of control over the objects on the display.
  
  
• Safe Memory Utilisation, Embedded Systems Programming, April 2000. Embedded systems face a number of challenges in the area of memory allocation. The general purpose allocation mechanism available with most compilers can suffer from fragmentation, regardless of how carefully it is used. This is not acceptable for systems that have to run for long periods. Also a general purpose allocation scheme usually has undeterministic real-time properties as it may have to perform a search for memory of the appropriate size. This paper examines how to manage memory if you decide to avoid using the heap completely and looks at some custom alternatives that eliminate fragmentation and searches, such as fixed size pools.
  
  
• Are Open Source and Innovation Compatable, Embedded Systems Programming, September 2000. According to popular wisdom of the moment, open source software is the way of the furture. But can the purveyors of free software really innovate, or even survive?
  Correction: The link to Bertrand Meyers article quoted in this piece is wrong and the correct link to his article his article "The Ethics of Free Software" is http://www.sdmagazine.com/documents/s=746/sdm0003d/0003d.htm
  
  
• Watchdog Timers, Embedded Systems Programming, November 2000 discusses the use of a watchdog timer as a safety check to make sure your software has not hung. The second half of this article deals with RTOS integration.
  If you found my watchdog article too software oriented, then you may want to look at a more hardware oriented article at http://www.chipcenter.com/circuitcellar/july99/c79cd1.htm.
  
  
• Principles Of User Interface Design, Embedded Systems Programming, December 2000. Usability improvement can be achieved by constant reviewing and tweaking of a design, but this articles describes principles you can chose to apply right from the first incarnation of your design.
  
  
• Usability for Graphical User Interfaces, Embedded Systems Programming, February 2001. Adding a Graphical User Interface to your product will allow you to add a lot of functionality, but it also raises usability issues.
  
  
• Beginner's Corner: Watchdog Timers, a more basic introduction to watchdog timers than the piece I wrote in October 2001. Michael Barr co-authored this piece.
  

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