Dan Griffin's Blog

Comments on security, PKI, smart cards, cryptography, and entrepreneurship.

For an introduction to the Secure Password Storage (SPS) project, see this post.

The latest specification document for SPS is available here. It now includes a GUI (graphical user interface) mock-up for the SPS client.

Some comments about that mock-up:

  1. It’s relatively simple. It includes the interface controls and a sample layout for what I expect will be the “main” screen of the SPS client.
  2. It was done using Visio. While that’s generally not the tool of choice for graphic designers, it’s one of the best tools for software designers. Once you’ve done a couple of component diagrams, and, yes, GUI mock-ups, it becomes natural and convenient.
  3. It uses the Win32 GUI templates from Visio. I did that just because it’s what I’m used to and it’s what Visio has to offer. Since we’re using WPF, and will be paying professional designers, I’ll expect them to come up with something more attractive.

Given how low-tech the GUI mock-up is, why is it worthwhile to do it? In my experience, it will pay for itself many times over, since it reduces the initial communication burden from requirements gathering, graphic design, and implementation. The same applies to the component graphic included in the spec.

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