Tutorial-based interfaces for cloud-enabled applications

  • Authors:

  • Gierad Laput;Eytan Adar;Mira Dontcheva;Wilmot Li

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA;University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA;Adobe, San Francisco, California, USA;Adobe, San Francisco, California, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 25th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

Powerful image editing software like Adobe Photoshop and GIMP have complex interfaces that can be hard to master. To help users perform image editing tasks, we introduce tutorial-based applications (tapps) that retain the step-by-step structure and descriptive text of tutorials but can also automatically apply tutorial steps to new images. Thus, tapps can be used to batch process many images automatically, similar to traditional macros. Tapps also support interactive exploration of parameters, automatic variations, and direct manipulation (e.g., selection, brushing). Another key feature of tapps is that they execute on remote instances of Photoshop, which allows users to edit their images on any Web-enabled device. We demonstrate a working prototype system called TappCloud for creating, managing and using tapps. Initial user feedback indicates support for both the interactive features of tapps and their ability to automate image editing. We conclude with a discussion of approaches and challenges of pushing monolithic direct-manipulation GUIs to the cloud.