The desired effect is stimulation of the client’s amygdala, which has been shown to make a positive improvement in clients’ lives.
The client
Dr Robert P. Miller is a pioneering psychologist from Charlotte North Carolina. InstallBuilder is one of several projects Dr Miller has underway, harnessing technology to manage and improve the mental health and capacity of his clients.
The challenges
Displaying images and words above all the other content on a user’s desktop without stealing focus from whatever application is currently in use was straightforward on XP, but had to be completely reworked for Windows 7 and Vista.
The software
InstallBuilder generates customised Windows installers which are licensed to the clients who need them. There’s a range of configuration options for client use, including the ability to add their own words and images and adjust display timing.
Lessons learnt
- A project will inevitable morph and grow: choose extensible solutions. The simple initial data structure for InstallBuilder was inadequate for the additional features Dr Miller requested for version 2.0, requiring either a nasty kludge or a rewrite of core functionality.
- The next version of Windows will break your software. For InstallBuilder, Aero was a killer and required an entire new round of research and prototyping.
- Encapsulation is the best future proofing any application can have. It may be a little more work initially to structure an application with this in mind, but it pays dividends in maintainability and extensibility.
Leigh is repaying karma from a previous life by working out this one in IT. She’s a project manager, developer, writer, musician … and a recovering soccer player.