Tuesday, February 12, 2008

What does it mean for an application user interface to be "responsive" while some task is being executed? It means that the application is still able to process input events, i.e. to react to user input. Depending on the task being executed, some input events may be ignored (for example, by disabling the part of the UI responsible for launching the task, until the task is complete and another one can be submitted). Some input events must not be ignored (for example, being able to close the application, or to interrupt the task).