Abstract
Most existing graphical user interfaces are usually designed for a fixed context of use, thus making them rather difficult to modify for other contexts of use, such as for other users, other platforms, and other environments. This paper addresses this problem by introducing a new visual design method for graphical users interfaces referred to as “visual design by (de)composition”. In this method, any individual or composite component of a graphical user interface is submitted to a series of operations for composing a new interface from existing components and for decomposing an existing one into smaller pieces that can be used in turn for another interface. For this purpose, any component of a user interface is described by specifications that are consistently written in a user interface description language that remains hidden to the designers’ eyes. We first define the composition and decomposition operations and individually exemplify them on some small examples. We then demonstrate how they can be used to visually design new interfaces for a real-world case study where variations of the context of use induce frequent recomposition of user interfaces. Finally, we describe how the operations are implemented in a dedicated interface builder supporting the aforementioned method.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Brown, J.: Exploring Human-Computer Interaction and Software Engineering Methodologies for Creation of Interactive Software. SIGCHI Bulletin 29(1), 32–35 (1997)
Morch, A.: Tailoring tools for system development. Journal of End User Computing 10(2), 22–29 (1998)
Calvary, G., et al.: A Unifying Reference Framework for Multi-Target User Interfaces. Interacting with Computer 15(3), 289–308 (2003)
Ali, M.F., Pérez-Quiñones, M.A., Abrams, M.: Building Multi-Platform User Interfaces with UIML. In: Seffah, A., Javahery, H. (eds.) Multiple User Interfaces: Engineering and Application Framework, pp. 95–118. John Wiley, Chichester (2004)
Chu, H., et al.: Roam, a Seamless Application Framework. Journal of System and Software 69(3), 209–226 (2004)
Göbel, S., et al.: Device Independent Representation of Web-based Dialogs and Contents. In: Proc. of IEEE Youth Forum in Computer Science and Engineering YUFORIC’01, Valencia, November 2001, IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (2001)
Spriestersbach, A., et al.: Flexible Pagination and Layouting for Device Independent Authoring. In: Proc. of WWW’2003 Workshop on Emerging Applications for Wireless and Mobile Access (2003)
Watters, C., Zhang, R.: PDA Access to Internet Content: Focus on Forms. In: Proc. of the 36th Annual Hawaii Int. Conf. on System Sciences HICSS’03, Big Island, January 2003, pp. 105–113. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (2003)
Dery-Pinna, A.-M., Fierstone, J., Picard, E.: Component Model and Programming: a First Step to Manage Human-Computer Interaction Adaptation. In: Chittaro, L. (ed.) Mobile HCI 2003. LNCS, vol. 2795, pp. 456–460. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)
Eisenstein, J., Vanderdonckt, J., Puerta, A.: Model-Based User-Interface Development Techniques for Mobile Computing. In: Lester, J. (ed.) Proc. of 5th ACM Int. Conf. on Intelligent User Interfaces IUI’2001, Santa Fe, January 14-17, 2001, pp. 69–76. ACM Press, New York (2001)
Ye, J., Herbert, J.: User Interface Tailoring for Mobile Computing Devices. In: Stary, C., Stephanidis, C. (eds.) User-Centered Interaction Paradigms for Universal Access in the Information Society. LNCS, vol. 3196, pp. 175–184. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Banavar, G., et al.: Tooling and System Support for Authoring Multi-device applications. Journal of Systems and Software 69(3), 227–242 (2004)
Rugaber, S.: A Tool Suite for Evolving Legacy Software. In: Proc. of IEEE Int. Conf. on Software Maintenance ICSM’99, Oxford, 30 August-3 Sept. 1999, pp. 33–39. IEEE Comp. Society Press, Los Alamitos (1999)
Florins, M., Vanderdonckt, J.: Graceful Degradation of User Interfaces as a Design Method for Multiplatform Systems. In: Proc. of Int. Conf. on Intelligent User Interfaces IUI’04, Funchal, January 13-16, 2004, pp. 140–147. ACM Press, New York (2004)
Grundy, J.C., Hosking, J.G.: Developing Adaptable User Interfaces for Component-based Systems. Interacting with Computers 14(3), 175–194 (2001)
Robertson, G., et al.: Scalable Fabric: Flexible Task Management. In: Proc. of ACM Conf. on Advanced Visual Interfaces AVI’2004, Gallipoli, May 25-28, 2004, pp. 85–89. ACM Press, New York (2004)
Quan, D., Huynh, D., Karger, D.R.: Haystack: A Platform for Authoring End User Semantic Web Applications. In: Fensel, D., Sycara, K.P., Mylopoulos, J. (eds.) ISWC 2003. LNCS, vol. 2870, Springer, Heidelberg (2003)
Tan, D.S., Meyers, B., Czerwinski, M.: WinCuts: Manipulating Arbitrary Window Regions for more Effective Use of Screen Space. In: Proc. of ACM Conf. on Human Aspects in Computing Systems CHI’2004, Vienna, April 2004, pp. 1525–1528. ACM Press, New York (2004)
Leventhal, E., Grubis, A.: Composable User Interfaces. The MITRE Corporation, Bedford (2004)
Grolaux, D., Vanderdonckt, J., Van Roy, P.: Attach me, Detach me, Assemble me like You Work. In: Costabile, M.F., Paternó, F. (eds.) INTERACT 2005. LNCS, vol. 3585, pp. 198–212. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Limbourg, Q., et al.: UsiXML: a Language Supporting Multi-Path Development of User Interfaces. In: Bastide, R., Palanque, P., Roth, J. (eds.) Engineering Human Computer Interaction and Interactive Systems. LNCS, vol. 3425, pp. 200–220. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
El Bekai, A., Nick Rossiter, B.: A Tree Based Algebra Framework for XML Data Systems. In: Proc. of the 7th Int. Conf. on Enterprise Information Systems ICEIS’2005, Miami, May 25-28, 2005, pp. 305–312 (2005)
Lepreux, S., Vanderdonckt, J.: Toward a support of the user interfaces design using composition rules. In: Calvary, G., et al. (eds.) Proc. of the 6th International Conference on Computer-Aided Design of User Interfaces (CADUI’2006)., Bucharest, Romania, June 5-8, 2006, pp. 5–8. Springer, Berlin (2006)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Lepreux, S., Vanderdonckt, J., Michotte, B. (2007). Visual Design of User Interfaces by (De)composition. In: Doherty, G., Blandford, A. (eds) Interactive Systems. Design, Specification, and Verification. DSV-IS 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4323. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69554-7_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69554-7_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-69553-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69554-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)