New lightweight XML tool delivers flexible, custom user interfaces for Windows CE devices and Windows Mobile Apps

Graeme Wintle, director of ByteSnap Design said: “SnapUI solves one of the classic software development pitfalls. User interfaces are often overlooked in the rush to get a good application finished, and vice versa. SnapUI is not only fast, lightweight and standards-based, but allows a wide range of UI styles to be displayed from a single application. For example, it’s possible to use multiple designs to target different user groups within a single release.”

Graphical User Interfaces are growing in popularity as LCD and touchscreen technology becomes more widely used in consumer devices. However, cluttered interfaces or difficult navigation can damage market perceptions of even well-designed applications.

Most existing user interface tools are more suited to desktop application development or use the .net framework which can negatively impact performance on Windows CE devices. However, SnapUI is based on a lightweight UI framework for Windows CE devices, which has no negative effects on performance and is easy to use by application developers and graphic designers. In fact, graphic designers need little knowledge of underlying application and can focus on the UI: designers and customers can amend and edit the interface on their own without needing experts to re-compile code – all on the desktop before deploying to the target Windows CE devices.

One of SnapUI’s key strengths is its extremely small code footprint. This is because the user interface is defined in a configuration file (XML) rather than a programming language. With SnapUI, developers no longer need to recompile an application to update changes to the user interface, instead a developer only needs to update the UI file. Developers can now demonstrate the UI either on a PC or directly on the embedded device, so development of the device can take place in parallel with development of the UI.

The separation of the UI and application has additional major implications for localisation and corporate branding as a single application can now be designed with multiple interfaces. Through a single XML file and a selection of images an application's look and feel can be completely customised, often without additional developer input.

SnapUI also uses specific interface files to match the screen resolution of the final device, which allows flexible ‘skinning’ of the application. This means that the same UI design can be rapidly adapted for different screen resolutions.

The product also allows developers to choose which sets of buttons/fields/widgets to show to the user, enabling different user interface files to be written for the same application, exposing completely different functionality from the same core application.