Abstract
When the user interface should be specified, a picture is worth a thousand words, and the worst thing to do is write a natural language specification for it. Although this practice is still common, it is a challenging task to move from text-based requirements and problem-space concepts to a final UI design, and then back. Especially for user interface specification, actors must frequently switch between high-level descriptions and low-level detailed screens. In our research, we found out that advanced specifications should be made up of interconnected artefacts that have distinct levels of abstraction. With regards to the transparency and traceability of the rationale of the specification process, transitions and dependencies must be visual and traversable. For this purpose, a user interface specification method is introduced that interactively integrates interdisciplinary and informal modelling languages with different levels of fidelity of user interface prototyping. With an innovative experimental tool, we finally assemble models and design to an interactive user interface specifications.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ambler, Scott W. (2002): Agile Modeling, Wiley, NY
Ambler, Scott W. (2004): The Object Primer – Agile Model-Driven Development with UML 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Barbosa, S.D.J., Paula, M.G. (2003): Interaction Modelling as a Binding Thread in the Software Development Process,In Proc. of the workshop on bridging the gaps between software engineering and human-computer interaction, Oregon, USA
Beck, K. (1999), Extreme Programming Explained, Addison-Wesley, Reading
Beyer, H., Holtzblatt, K. (1998): Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems, Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco
Blomkvist, S. (2005): Towards a model for bridging agile development and user-centered design. In: Human-centered software engineering – integrating usability in the development process, Springer, Berlin, 219–244
Calvary, G., Coutaz, J., Thevenin, D., Limbourg, Q., Bouillon, L., Vanderdonckt, J. (2003): A Unifying Reference Framework for Multi-Target User Interfaces. Interacting with Computer 15(3): 289–308
Campos, P., Nunes, N. (2004): Canonsketch: a User-Centered Tool for Canonical Abstract Prototyping. In Proc. of 11th International Workshop on Design, Specification and Verification of Interactive Systems, Springer, Berlin, 146–163
Campos, P., Nunes, N. (2006): Principles and Practice of Work Style Modeling: Sketching Design Tools. In Proc. of Human-Work Interaction Design. Springer, Berlin
Constantine, L.L., Lockwood, L.A.D. (1999) Software for Use: A Practical Guide to Models and Methods of Usage-Centered Design, Addison-Wesley, Reading
Holt, J. (2005): A Pragmatic Guide To Business Process Modelling, British Computer Society, United Kingdom
Lepreux, S., Vanderdonckt, J., Michotte, B. (2006): Visual Design of User Interfaces by (De)composition, In. Proc. of DSV-IS’2006, Vol. 4323, Springer, Berlin, 157–170
Lin, J., Landay, James A. (2002): Damask: A Tool for Early-Stage Design and Prototyping of Multi-Device User Interfaces. In Proc. of the 8th International Conference on Distributed Multimedia Systems, San Francisco: 573–580
Memmel, Thomas; Bock, C.; Reiterer, Harald (2007): Model-driven prototyping for corporate software specification. Proceedings of the EHCI-HCSE-DSVIS’07 (IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2008). In: J. Gulliksen et al., EIS 2007, LNCS 4940, 158–174
Memmel, T., Gundelsweiler, F., Reiterer, H. (2007): Agile Human-Centered Software Engineering, In Proc. of the 21st BCS-HCI, 167–175
Memmel, T., Reiterer, H., Ziegler, H., Oed, R. (2007): Visual Specification As Enhancement Of Client Authority In Designing Interactive Systems. Proc. of 5th WS of the German Chapter of the Usability Professionals Association, Weimer, Germany. In: Kerstin Roese, Henning Brau: Usability Professionals 2007, Frauenhofer IRB Verlag, Stuttgart, 99–104
Memmel, T.; Vanderdonckt, J.; Reiterer, H. (2008): Multi-fidelity User Interface Specifications. Proceedings of the 15th International Workshop on the Design, Verification and Specification of Interactive Systems (DSV-IS 2008), Jul 2008, 43-57
Metzker, E., Reiterer, H. (2002): Evidence-Based Usability Engineering. In Proc. of the CADUI 2002: 323–336
Newman, M.W., Jason, J.L., Hong, I., Landay, J.A. (2003), DENIM: An Informal Web Site Design Tool Inspired by Observations of Practice. HCI, 18(3): 259–324
Nunes, N. J., Campos, P. (2004): Towards Usable Analysis, Design and Modeling Tools. In Proc. of MBUI’2004, CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 103
Rosson, M.B., Carroll, J.M. (2002): Usability Engineering: scenario-based development of human computer interaction, Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco
Sutcliffe, G. (2005): Convergence or competition between software engineering and human computer interaction, In: Human-centered software engineering – integrating usability in the development process, Springer, Berlin, 71–84
Ware, C. (2004): Information Visualization: Perception for Design, Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco
Zave, P., Jackson, M. (1997): Four Dark Corners of Requirements Engineering. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology 6, 1 (1997) 1–30
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag London Limited
About this paper
Cite this paper
Memmel, T., Reiterer, H. (2009). Inspector: Interactive UI Specification Tool. In: Lopez Jaquero, V., Montero Simarro, F., Molina Masso, J., Vanderdonckt, J. (eds) Computer-Aided Design of User Interfaces VI. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-206-1_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-206-1_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-84882-205-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-84882-206-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)