Feb 17, 2016
Portfolio: Software Updater
The best interface is no interface
The software updater is the companion tool for the software release/update server:
It’s a standalone tool that’s included in most of our software products and is called when launching the software. It’ll then check for software updates. If there is any new version, the tool displays the information, downloads the installer and launch it automatically.
The whole process is done with minimal user interactions.
Design Highlights
The following is the screen of new updates prompt:
If you just hit ENTER, the rest of the process is all automatic:
When we talk about user interface, it’s not only about GUI, but also has something to do with the command line interface. I try to build the interface as the common command line tool.
Here is the README of its usage:
Implementation Highlights
- It’s built as a standalone tool without the need of installation.
- It accepts command line arguments.
- The download feature is using isxdl.dll
Responsibilities
I single handed everything including design and code.
It’s started in December 2013 and get some updates in early 2014.
Thoughts
When design this tool and the whole “get updates” process, I try to make it as easy as possible for end users, as I believe:
One More Thing
I think the User in the term “User Experience Design” can be anything, it doesn’t always mean customers. It could be Operating System (when designing the command line interface as seen above), it could be developers (when designing the web API), or it could be engineers.
Please see this portfolio on how do I improve the “engineer experience” by developing a syntax highlight package:
This is a part of my portfolio showcase on medium. To see the overview of my portfolio, please click here.
