REQUIREMENTS FOR GRAPHICAL USER-INTERFACE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTS FOR GROUPWARE

Most user interface designers are conversant with graphical user inter face (GUI) tools such as Motif(1) and Presentation Manager(2) which pr ovide 'widgets' and other facilities for building user interfaces. Suc h GUI tools were developed primarily for building interfaces to single -user systems. The purpose of the paper is to present the result of re search into the requirements for GUI tools for multi-user systems. Man y of the requirements of single and multi-user GUIs are the same, for example, usability and flexibility. A number of new widgets are needed for multi-user GUIs, for example, shared scroll-bars and multi-user t elepointers. The requirements are divided into three groups based on t hree sources of requirements: literature, user survey and widgets.