Develop and Implement, the Graphical User Interface, Using Various Web Development

      

 A Graphic User Interface is a software interface with which the user interacts with a pointing device, for instance, a mouse. For example, when one is browsing the Internet, what they look at is the graphical user interface of the web browser. A graphical user interface is not like a command line interface that is less user-friendly, especially for a layman user. A GUI offers the user many windows on the screen and allows the user to use a mouse and clicking the buttons, dragging items, pulling down, and selecting items from a given menu, selecting text fields to type a response, navigating down through a window and many other operations (Würthinger et al., 2011). The GUI components are the items such as buttons and menus that are included on the user interface for the purpose of providing the user with a way of interacting with programs.

Java offers two libraries that are helpful in the programming of the graphical user interfaces. Those libraries include the Abstract Windowing Toolkit and Swing. Although Swing is expected to overtake the Abstract Windowing Toolkit which is Java’s first windowing toolkit, many aspects of the graphical user interface still rely on Abstract Windowing Toolkit. The reason why the Java Swing is likely to overtake its counterpart soon is that it offers high-level organizational components for specifying the overall outlook of a graphical interface like the main window, and various common interface controls like text labels, text input boxes, slides, and buttons (Piroumian, 1999). With the usage of Java as the backend and the technologies such as Angular JS, HTML5, CSS, BootStrap, and JavaScript in the frontend, it is possible to make a graphical user interface to look awesome.

The majority of desktop applications do have do have graphical user interfaces. It should be known that it is not merely a user interface that is in requirement, but it is rather a  graphical user interface that is captivating, attractive, and ease to navigate so as to allow the user have ease of interacting with a given application.  Many of the applications in the marketplace do lack a real and expertise graphical user interfaces besides their lack of appeal to the viewers.  A real graphical user interface should incorporate the window frames that entail buttons, input screens, fewer items on the screen, and other onscreen components (Bishop & Horspool, 2004).  That can only be possible with the usage of Web technologies such as the ones mentioned above that can help to create the graphical user interfaces that meet the needs of the customers.

I intend to solve the issues with the current graphical user interfaces as mentioned above using a variety of technologies including Java in the frontend, Angular JS, HTML5, CSS, BootStrap, and JavaScript in the backend.  Many of the programmers in the past have been haphazardly creating the graphical user interfaces without taking their time in understanding what the various types of user desire. I will make sure that I figure out firsts on how to position and arrange the elements of the graphical user interface so as to match the appearance that is desirable by each type of user.  Unlike the many unresponsive components that I have observed in many applications, I will make sure that I make the events interactive as I will make sure that I make them respond to the various user events.

Methodology

The Action Research (AR) methodology is defined as a disciplined inquiry process that is conducted by and for the participants of the research (Stringer, 2013).  The major reason for carrying out AR is to help the ‘actor’ to improve or refine their actions. It is believed that as the actor or practitioner improves, the organization within which they are working also improves because their skills and knowledge have to be used within their organizational contexts.  Unlike the other types of research that are hardly adjustable, the AR methodology can have an adjustment so as to satisfy the demands of a given situation.  If the research outcomes are to be achieved, there must be responsiveness to the people, situation, and the growing insight on the part of the participants.  The use of the cyclic process is the one that enhances responsiveness.

It is composed of a series of steps that are carried out in a cyclic format beginning with planning, action, observation, and reflection (Greenwood & Levin, 2006).  During the research process, the action is being refined so as to ensure that a practical solution becomes visible. These spiral of steps allow the researchers to have a comprehensive interaction with the stakeholders in the problems setting, and this makes it easy to understand their changes and devise the best approach for solving them.

History of Action Research

From the 1920s onwards, the researcher began to develop an interest in the application of scientific methods in the study of educational and social problems (Wallace, 1987). The most cited of those researchers is Kurt Lewin who attributed with the introduction of the phrase ‘action research’ as a form of investigation that enables the testing of established laws of the social life to be thoroughly tried and tested in practice.   It is also Lewin that is ebbing credited with developing the AR method that he portrayed as having a spiral of phases consisting of planning, action, and evaluation or fact finding of the outcome of an action (Greenwood & Levin, 2006). Therefore, the initial formulation of AR was defined as a strategy that enabled the theories that have been produced by social sciences to have application in practice and to be tested based on the practical effectiveness.

Even though the many researchers claimed that AR did not have the ability to translate the findings of the scientific research into an action, there was an increasing application of the same, especially in the applied sciences.  AR was rejected by the American social scientists in the 1950s because they claimed that AR was not in line with the positivist insistence as other social sciences and that it did not offer empirical generalizations by adopting the quantitative methods of collecting and analyzing data.  AR then went into rapid decline due to the failure to meet these positivist methodological requirements (Sanford, 1970).   However, there was a resurgence of AR in the early 1970s particularly in the educational and curriculum research contexts in the UK.  The reasons put forward for the resurgence include the irrelevance of the conventional research methods applied for educational researchers (Kemmis, 1998), the realization that teachers could best enhance their skills if they took a research role (Stenhouse, 1975), and the growing conviction that the reformulation of Lewin’s AR method would result in improvement in the pedagogical practice of teachers (Elliot, 1998).

The Applications/Uses of Action Research

The AR methodology is useful to any person or group of people who want to improve their performance. AR is widely applied in education, particularly by the teachers who want to improve their teaching. It is also applied in sociology with the purpose of helping the communities to improve their interaction or finding the practical solutions to the problems the communities are facing. It is also applied in the computer science field where the computer scientists collaborate their efforts with the aim of finding out better and improved technologies and ways to addressing the various challenges in entirely any field. It is also a method used for organizational development and in the ecological field. Wherever the AR methodology is applied, the aim of applying it is to improve the practice and to find workable solutions to the problems being faced by companies in which the researchers are working (Greenwood & Levin, 2006).

Suitability of Action Research to my Research

Action Research is the methodology that will have application in my research. The reason for that is that this methodology helps in ensuring that a practical solution to a problem is achieved. In my research, there are few problems I intend to solve as highlighted in the previous section of introduction; therefore, applying this methodology will ensure a great achievement in my research. The interaction with the relevant experts who are more knowledgeable than me in the research process will also help me to address my weak areas so that I can be more effective in my career in the future. Thus, AR is the most appropriate methodology that will have application in my research.

References

Bishop, J., & Horspool, N. (2004, March). Developing principles of GUI programming using views. In ACM SIGCSE Bulletin (Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 373-377). ACM.

Elliott, J. (1998). The curriculum experiment: Meeting the challenge of social change. Open University Pres.

Greenwood, D. J., & Levin, M. (2006). Introduction to action research: Social research for social change. SAGE publications.

Kemmis, S. (1988) Action Research, in: J. P. Keeves (ed.) Educational Research, Methodology
and Measurement: An International Handbook (Oxford, Pergamon Press).

Piroumian, V. (1999). Java GUI Development. Sams.

Sanford, N. (1970). Whatever happened to action research? Journal of social issues, 26(4), 3-23.

Stenhouse, L. (1975). An introduction to curriculum research and development. Heinemann Educational Publishers.

Stringer, E. T. (2013). Action research. Sage Publications.

Wallace, M. (1987). A historical review of action research: some implications for the education of teachers in their managerial role. Journal of Education for Teaching, 13(2), 97-115.

Würthinger, T., Binder, W., Ansaloni, D., Moret, P., & Mössenböck, H. (2011). Applications of enhanced dynamic code evolution for Java in GUI development and dynamic aspect-oriented programming. ACM SIGPLAN Notices, 46(2), 123-126.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at Melda Research in nursing writing services if you need a similar paper you can place your order for non plagiarized essay for sale.