GUI Design for IDE Command Recommendations

Abstract

This paper describes a novel design of a graphical user interface (GUI) to recommend useful command within an integrated development environment. The recommendation GUI contains a description of the suggested command, an explanation why the command is recommended, and a command usage example. The proposed design is based on the analysis of relevant guidelines identified in the literature. Its perceived usability and acceptance were evaluated in a live user study with 36 software developers. Our findings, partially contradicting existing literature, indicate that the presentation of the command-the description and the example-is perceived as more useful than the explanation of the rationale for the recommendation.