Q&A: Developing Great User Experiences with the AB Suite Client Framework

Rinu Sunil, a user experience lead, and John Papachristos, a user interface architect, are members of the Unisys India Technology Center (InTC).

We recently spoke with Rinu and John about their team’s experience with user-centric design, and how tools like the Agile Business Suite (AB Suite®) Client Framework, Microsoft® Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and the Microsoft ASP.NET Model-View-Controller (MVC) can help you create cutting-edge UIs with ease.

Developing Agility: Your team developed the UIs for the “Petshop” sample application. Please tell us about the approach you followed and the tools you used.

Rinu Sunil: The Petshop application was developed to demonstrate the intuitive and highly engaging user interfaces that can be built with the AB Suite Client Framework. It’s a sample eCommerce application built to simulate the experience of shopping for pet food and related products online. It also has a desktop/tablet UI that provides system administration capabilities and can also be used over the counter to search for and purchase products.

We built it following our team’s user-centric design principles. That meant collaborating with AB Suite architects and engineers to understand the needs of the application’s administrators and end users.

We paired these inputs with a UI design methodology that starts with research and analysis, moves to conceptualization and design, and ultimately ends with fully developed features delivered to engineering. We employed a variety of popular tools and technologies to prototype and test the UI designs, including Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for design, JavaScript and Bootstrap 3 for HTML conversion, and Firefox responsive design view for UI testing.

DA: Could you tell us about the basics of WPF and MVC? What do they offer Unisys own developers and what do they offer our clients’ end users?

John Papachristos: WPF and MVC are both leading-edge Microsoft technologies for developing rich UIs on desktops and browsers, respectively.

Use WPF when you want the performance of native Microsoft Windows® desktop applications along with the feature-rich set of UI controls in Microsoft Visual Studio® and other third-party control libraries and frameworks.

MVC helps you develop Internet/Intranet applications that are hosted in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) and accessed via a web browser. These are typically developed using HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript technologies, and can be multi-page or single-page applications depending on your needs. They can also include responsive design to support desktop, tablet, and smartphone browsers.

DA: What makes the combination of the AB Suite Client Framework, WPF, and MVC so strong?

JP: The strength lies in using the Client Framework to automatically generate and scaffold WPF and MVC projects based on the Data Models created from the Ispec definitions in AB Suite.

With these industry-standard technologies and interfaces, teams are able to work in clearly defined areas. For example, AB Suite developers can focus on the host application business logic and interface definitions required by the client applications. UI developers, meanwhile, can build an interface that reflects internal and external requirements. And the application integration team can implement the UI designs, as well as the infrastructure required to perform the necessary transaction to the AB Suite system.

DA: How much do UI developers need to know about AB Suite to design in WPF and MVC?

RS: Strictly speaking, UI developers don’t need any specialized AB Suite knowledge to design UIs for WPF and MVC. All they need to be concerned with is knowing how the UI should look, flow, and behave from a user perspective.

DA: How can our clients make use of your team to get their AB Suite solutions modernized? What type of services do you offer?

RS: Anyone looking to modernize their AB Suite solutions can reach out to us for help refining the application’s UI and overall user experience, designing a new standalone or desktop UI, building fixed and responsive UIs, and designing for smartphones and tablets, as well as for general UI-related consultation.

In most cases, we recommend beginning with a pilot project. To get started, please reach out to your Unisys sales representative or contact us at ESBO@unisys.com.

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