Reconfigurable User Interfaces for CAD Applications

CAD systems have powerful features for creative technical design, yet these features are exposed through highly restrictive user interfaces. We argue that CAD users would be more productive and creative if they had greater control over their interface configuration. We propose and specify a feature set for a reconfigurable CAD user interface system. We review our prototype implementation of the proposed system and several use cases where a reconfigurable user interface would be beneficial. We present insights from our experience with popular CAD systems, various reconfigurable text editors, and our prototype CAD system. This work focuses on enhancing the utility of mice and keyboards but can be extended to any input device. Planned user studies are presented.