Angel R. Puerta

A model-based interface development environment

The author describes Mobi-D (Model-Based Interface Designer), a comprehensive environment that supports user-centered design through model-based interface development. In the Mobi-D paradigm, a series of declarative models, such as user-task, dialog, and presentation, are interrelated to provide a formal representation of an interface design. This contrasts to model-based systems, which use only one or two models in isolation and have no explicit notion as to how the various model elements are organized into an interface design.

Applying model-based techniques to the development of UIs for mobile computers

Mobile computing poses a series of unique challenges for user interface design and development: user interfaces must now accommodate the capabilities of various access devices and be suitable for different contexts of use, while preserving consistency and usability. We propose a set of techniques that will aid UI designers who are working in the domain of mobile computing. These techniques will allow designers to build UIs across several platforms, while respecting the unique constraints posed by each platform. In addition, these techniques will help designers to recognize and accommodate the unique contexts in which mobile computing occurs. Central to our approach is the development of a user-interface model that serves to isolate those features that are common to the various contexts of use, and to specify how the user-interface should adjust when the context changes. We claim that without some abstract description of the UI, it is likely that the design and the development of user-interfaces for mobile computing will be very time consuming, error-prone or even doomed to failure.

A multiple-method knowledge-acquisition shell for the automatic generation of knowledge-acquisition tools

Abstract The use of predefined models of problem-solving methods is receiving considerable attention from researchers in the area of knowledge acquisition. Using these models, developers of knowledge-acquisition tools are able to prescribe the roles in which knowledge is used in completing a given task. A number of method-oriented architectures based on a single problem-solving method have been developed by various research groups. Because the methods are domain-independent, methodoriented architectures are limited by the fact that knowledge roles that depend on domain-specific considerations cannot be represented using the model of problem solving. In addition, the interface between the knowledge-acquisition tool and the application expert cannot convey adequately the role of each knowledge type in the task model. PROTEGE-II is a knowledge-acquisition shell that we are building to generate knowledge-acquisition tools automatically without presupposing a specific model of problem solving. The shell manages a library of mechanisms—procedures of grain size smaller than that of problem-solving methods. Mechanisms can be combined in PROTEGE-II to construct problem-solving methods and to define the roles of knowledge that depend on domain considerations. Furthermore, PROTEGE-II utilizes the concept of adaptation in interfaces to allow the knowledge engineer to produce interfaces that are task- and domain-specific. In this paper, we present the PROTEGE-II shell and examine the components of its architecture. We also demonstrate the use of PROTEGE-II with a running example and discuss the design techniques used to overcome the limitations of method-specific architectures.

Towards a general computational framework for model-based interface development systems

Abstract Model-based interface development systems have not been able to progress beyond producing narrowly focused interface designs of restricted applicability. We identify a level-of-abstraction mismatch in interface models, which we call the mapping problem, as the cause of the limitations in the usefulness of model-based systems. We propose a general computational framework for solving the mapping problem in model-based systems. We show an implementation of the framework within the MOBI-D (Model-Based Interface Designer) interface development environment. The MOBI-D approach to solving the mapping problem enables for the first time with model-based technology the design of a wide variety of types of user interfaces.

Task modeling with reusable problem-solving methods

Problem-solving methods for knowledge-based systems establish the behavior of such systems by defining the roles in which domain knowledge is used and the ordering of inferences. Developers can compose problem-solving methods that accomplish complex application tasks from primitive, reusable methods. The key steps in this development approach are task analysis, method selection (from a library), and method configuration. Protege-ii is a knowledge-engineering environment that allows developers to select and configure problem-solving methods. In addition, Protege-ii generates domain-specific knowledge-acquisition tools that domain specialists can use to create knowledge bases on which the methods may operate. The board-game method is a problem-solving method that defines control knowledge for a class of tasks that developers can model in a highly specific way. The method adopts a conceptual model of problem solving in which the solution space is construed as a “game board” on which the problem solver moves “playing pieces” according to prespecified rules. This familiar conceptual model simplifies the developers cognitive demands when configuring the board-game method to support new application tasks. We compare configuration of the board-game method to that of a chronological-backtracking problem-solving method for the same application tasks (for example, towers of Hanoi and the Sisyphus room-assignment problem). We also examine how method designers can specialize problem-solving methods by making ontological commitments to certain classes of tasks. We exemplify this technique by specializing the chronological-backtracking method to the board-game method.

XIML: a common representation for interaction data

We introduce XIML (eXtensible Interface Markup Language), a proposed common representation for interaction data. We claim that XIML fulfills the requirements that we have found essential for a language of its type: (1) it supports design, operation, organization, and evaluation functions, (2) it is able to relate the abstract and concrete data elements of an interface, and (3) it enables knowledge-based systems to exploit the captured data.

Computer-Aided Design of User Interfaces II

Component Based Development tCBD) applies the best techniques of object oriented design to the large scale architecture of systems. As in (properlyapplied) Object-Oriented Design, separation of concerns, encapsulation, and pluggability make a system extensible and flexible as business needs change. Many of the design principles are therefore very similar. Components are nevertheless different from objects: they cross language and host boundaries; they may be distributed, with consequent robustness and performance issues; they have more sophisticated interfaces than the objects list of messages. This paper will explore some of design methodology for CBD. The ideas will be based on the Catalysis approach.

Adapting to mobile contexts with user-interface modeling

Mobile computing offers the possibility of dramatically expanding the versatility of computers, by bringing them off the desktop and into new and unique contexts. However, this new found versatility poses difficult challenges for user interface (UI) designers. We propose three model-based techniques that should aid UI designers who are working in the domain of mobile computing. These techniques allow designers to build UIs across several platforms, while respecting the unique constraints posed by each platform. In addition, these techniques should help designers to recognize and accommodate the unique contexts in which mobile computing occurs. All three techniques depend on the development of a UI model which serves to isolate those features that are common to the various contexts of use, and to specify how the UI should adjust when the context changes. UI models allow automatic and automated tool support that enables UI designers to overcome the challenges posed by mobile computing.

Adaptation in automated user-interface design

Design problems involve issues of stylistic preference and flexible standards of success; human designers often proceed by intuition and are unaware of following any strict rule-based procedures. These features make design tasks especially difficult to automate. Adaptation is proposed as a means to overcome these challenges. We describe a system that applies an adaptive algorithm to automated user interface design within the framework of the MOBI-D (Model-Based Interface Designer) interface development environment. Preliminary experiments indicate that adaptation improves the performance of the automated user interface design system.

Reusable ontologies, knowledge-acquisition tools, and performance systems: PROTE´GE´-II solutions to Sisyphus-2

Abstract This paper describes how we applied the PROTEGE-II architecture to build a knowledge-based system that configures elevators. The elevator-configuration task was solved originally with a system that employed the propose-and-revise problem-solving method (VT). A variant of this task, here named the Sisyphus-2 problem, is used by the knowledge-acquisition community for comparative studies. PROTEGE-II is a knowledge-engineering environment that focuses on the use of reusable ontologies and problem-solving methods to generate task-specific knowledge-acquisition tools and executable problem solvers. The main goal of this paper is to describe in detail how we used PROTEGE-II to model the elevator-configuration task. This description provides a starting point for comparison with other frameworks that use abstract problem-solving methods. Beginning with the textual description of the elevator-configuration task, we analysed the domain knowledge with respect to PROTEGE-II’s main goal: to build domain-specific knowledge-acquisition tools. We used PROTEGE-II’s suite of tools to construct a knowledge-based system, called ELVIS, that includes a reusable domain ontology, a knowledge-acquisition tool, and a propose-and-revise problem-solving method that is optimized to solve the elevator-configuration task. We entered domain-specific knowledge about elevator configuration into the knowledge base with the help of a task-specific knowledge-acquisition tool that PROTEGE-II generated from the ontologies. After we constructed mapping relations to connect the knowledge base with the method’s code, the final executable problem solver solved the test case provided with the Sisyphus-2 material. We have found that the development of ELVIS has afforded a valuable test case for evaluating PROTEGE-II’s suite of system-building tools. Only projects based on reasonably large problems, such as the Sisyphus-2 task, will allow us to improve the design of PROTEGE-II and its ability to produce reusable components.