Equivalence Checking for Comparing User Interfaces

International audiencePlastic User Interfaces (UIs) have the capacity to adapt tochanges in their context of use while preserving usability.This exposes users to different versions of UIs that can diverge from each other at several levels, which may cause lossof consistency. This raises the question of similarity betweenUIs. This paper proposes an approach to comparing UIs bymeasuring to what extent UIs have the same interaction capabilities and appearance. We use the equivalence checkingformal method. The approach verifies whether two UI models are equivalent or not. When they are not equivalent, the UIdivergences are listed, thus providing the possibility of leaving them out of the analysis. In this case, the two UIs are said equivalent modulo such divergences. Furthermore, theapproach shows that one UI can contain at least all interaction capabilities of another. We apply the approach to a casestudy in the nuclear power plant domain in which several UIversions are analyzed, and the equivalence and inclusion relations are demonstrated