2002): Model-based User Interface Design

iAbstract This work is about supporting user interface design by means of explicit design representa-tions, in particular models. We take as a starting point two different development traditions: the formal, analytic, top-down engineering approach and the informal, synthetic, bottom-up designer approach. Both are based on specific design representations tailored to the respective approaches, and are found to have strengths and weaknesses. We conclude that different representations should be used during user interface design, based on their specific qualities and the needs of the design process. To better understand the use of design representations a framework for classifying them is developed. A design representation may be classified along three dimensions: the perspec-tive (problem- or solution-oriented) of the representation, the granularity of the objects described and the degree of formality of the representation and its language. Any design approach must provide representation languages that cover the whole classification space to be considered complete. In addition, the transitions between different representations withi