GVU Technical Report Number:
GIT-GVU-93-37
Title:
Model-Based User Interface Design by Example and by Interview
Authors:
Martin R. Frank
James D. Foley
Abstract:
Model-based user interface design is centered around a description of
application objects and operations at a level of abstraction higher than
that of code. A good model can be used to support multiple interfaces, help
separate interface and application, describe input sequencing in a
simple way, check consistency and completeness of the interface, evaluate
the interface's speed-of-use, generate context-specific help and assist
in designing the interface. However, designers rarely use
computer-supported application modelling today and prefer less formal
approaches such as story boards of user interface prototypes. One reason
is that available tools often use cryptic languages for the model
specification. Another reason is that these tools force the designers
to specify the application model before they can start working on the
visual interface, which is their main area of expertise. We present the
Interactive User Interface Design Environment (Interactive UIDE), a
novel framework for concurrent development of the application model and
the user interface which combines storyboarding and model-based interface
design. We also present Albert, an intelligent component within this
framework, which is able to infer an application model from a user
interface and from an interview process with the designer.
Keywords:
User interface management systems, model-based user interface design
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