Starting with the idea that the best GUI is one that is invisible, intuitive, and elegant, DIAL works to assemble code and GUI objects (behaviors and graphics) that can be used by all DIAL developers to create new applications. The idea is that the overlap between the GUIs of any two applications will be great enough (and the acceptance of common GUI guidelines broad enough) so that any user that has experienced one DIAL application can pick up another and use it without any additional interface learning curve.
Creating a GUI "pattern language" is a project where the DIAL also needs to learn from efforts at GUI design from many sources. AskTog.com and Useit.com are examples of long-time (more than 5 years) GUI design expertise. The notion of a pattern language comes from the work of Christopher Alexander (et al). In this work the authors turn to two millennia of building history to find patterns for designs that have proven to work. In the same way, we will be looking at the recent history of internet and application design to find patterns for GUI objects that work.

GUI objects: modular and reusable
GUI objects are the building-blocks for GUI design. GUI objects combine code objects with GUI elements (graphics) to create the reprogrammable user interfaces that all the DIAL products can share. Currently, the GUI objects are created using Director's programming language, Lingo. These are true code objects, created through OO programming, and easily tested and refactored. DIAL GUI objects will be housed on the DIAL Basecamp site.
DIAL NASA BASECAMP SITE