Model-base user interface design by example and by answering questions

Abstract

Model-based user interface design is based on a description of application objects and operations at a level of abstraction higher than that of code. A good model can be used to assist in designing the user interface, support multiple interfaces, help separate interface and application, describe input sequencing in a simple way, check consistency and completeness of the interfaee, evaluate its speed-of-use and generate context-specific textual and animated help. However, designers rarely use computer-supported application modelling today and prefer less formal approaches such as using a story board of interface prototypes. One reason is that available tools use special-purpose languages for the model spw ification. 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 a novel methodology for concurrent development of the user interface and the application model which overcomes both problems by combining story-boarding and model-based interface design.