Assessing the Quality of User-interface Modeling Languages

Yugoslav Journal of Operations Research, 2013

In model-driven user interface development, several models are used to describe different aspects of user interface when level of detail varies. The relations between the models are established through model transformations. The Model Driven Engineering (MDE) approach has been proposed in software engineering domain in order to provide techniques and tools to deal with models in the automated way. In this paper, we will review existing user interface languages that gain wider acceptance, and discuss their applicability for model-driven user interface development.

Software & Systems Modeling, 2018

Advances in software design possibilities have led to a growing interest in the study of User Interfaces (UIs). Many Model-Based User Interface Development Environments (MB-UIDEs) have been proposed to deal with the generation of the UIs (semi) automatically by using models with different levels of abstraction. Often, this generation is limited to the UI-part of an application. However, achieving true model-driven development (MDD) requires the co-development of application and user interface and hence needs to go a step further. This paper analyzes a large set of existing MB-UIDEs and evaluates, from a critical perspective, to what extent they can be considered full MDD environments and adequately addressing the co-design of UI and application. A robust assessment framework is defined and applied for this purpose. Following the guidelines proposed by Kitchenham & Charters in 2007, we performed a systematic literature review. A total of 82 papers were examined. Based on these papers, an assessment framework containing 10 criteria with specific metrics to evaluate MB-UIDEs was defined and 29 different environments were evaluated following these criteria. The evaluation shows that, although a strong progress has being achieved over the last years, the existing environments do not yet fully exploit the benefits and potentialities of MDD, nor do they adequately integrate UI design with application logic design and generation. Further research needs to be done to support the model-driven development of user interfaces and the co-design of the underlying application. The difficulty of use of the existing MB-UIDEs, the lack of UI design flexibility, and the lack of complete and integrated development support, are the main research gaps that need to be addressed.

2007

Model-driven user interface development environments and their associated methodologies have evolved over time to become more explicit, flexible, and reusable but they still lack to reach a level that allows tailoring a method to the reality of software development organizations and their projects. In order to address this shortcoming, method engineering provides strategies to define and tailor software engineering methods.

2000

Abstract Declarative models play an important role in most software design activities, by allowing designs to be constructed that selectively abstract over complex implementation details. In the user interface setting, Model-Based User Interface Development Environments (MB-UIDEs) provide a context within which declarative models can be constructed and related, as part of the interface design process.

2008

ABSTRACT Model-driven engineering (MDE) of user interfaces consists in describing a user interface and aspects involved in it (eg, task, domain, context of use) in models from which a final interface is produced. With one big win in mind: when the user's requirements or the context of use change, the models change accordingly and so does the supporting user interface.

2011

Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel gibt einen Überblick über die letzten 30 Jahre der Forschung im Bereich der modellbasierten Entwicklung von Benutzungsschnittstellen. Dazu wird zunächst die Geschichte aufgearbeitet, bevor wesentliche Konzepte und aktuelle Ansätze beschrieben werden. Der letzte Abschnitt zeigt aktuelle Herausforderungen auf und gibt Implikationen, wie diesen zukünftig begegnet werden kann.

1996

Abstract Research on model-based user interface development tools is about 10 years old. Many approaches and prototype systems have been investigated in universities and research laboratories around the world. This paper proposes a generic architecture for these tools, reviews the different approaches in light of this architecture, and discusses their progress towards the goals of increasing the quality and reducing the cost of developing interfaces.

2000

The workshop Model Driven Development of Advanced User Interfaces (MDDAUI ) aims at integrating results from the area of humancomputer interaction and user interface modeling with the concepts of model-driven engineering. This paper provides a summary on the third edition of MDDAUI held as part of the MoDELS 2007 conference in Nashville, USA. In particular, it presents the results of the two group discussions of the workshop.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2008

The workshop Model Driven Development of Advanced User Interfaces (MDDAUI ) aims at integrating results from the area of humancomputer interaction and user interface modeling with the concepts of model-driven engineering. This paper provides a summary on the third edition of MDDAUI held as part of the MoDELS 2007 conference in Nashville, USA. In particular, it presents the results of the two group discussions of the workshop.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2006

This paper reports about the workshop Model Driven Development of Advanced User Interfaces (MDDAUI) which was held on October 2nd, 2005 at the MoDELS/UML 2005 conference in Montego Bay, Jamaica. We introduce the topic of the workshop and give an overview about the workshop's structure. Then we summarize the accepted contributions and finally we provide an overview about the workshop discussion and its results. It is intended to provide a follow-up event of this workshop in the next year.