Lassaad Ben Ammar

Incorporating usability requirements into model transformation technologies

Abstract Model transformation plays a key role in the model-driven engineering (MDE) approach. In fact, it describes the process of converting one model into another of the same system. Considering a source model, there may be several ways to transform it into target models. Although alternative target models may be equivalent from the functional viewpoint, they may differ in their usability attributes. One of the key challenges for an automated transformation process is to identify which model transformations will produce a target model with the desired usability attributes. The present paper addresses this issue and provides a parameterized transformation to deal with usability driven in an MDE approach. Specifically, it focuses on how to associate usability attributes with the different alternative transformations and how this can be taken into account in an automated transformation process to obtain user interface model with the desired usability attributes.

A model-driven approach for usability engineering of interactive systems

Abstract Usability is considered to be one of the most important quality factors that determine the success/failure in the actual use of an interactive system. This can explain the ever-increasing number of publications addressing the problem of usability evaluation. However, most of these proposals only consider usability evaluations after the application is fully implemented and deployed. Some others are based on reviewing usability principles in intermediate artifacts with regard to their conformance with a set of guidelines. Since the traceability between these artifacts and the final application is not well established, performing usability evaluations by considering these artifacts as input may not ensure the usability of the final application. This problem may be alleviated by using a model-driven engineering (MDE) approach due to its intrinsic traceability mechanisms that are established by the transformation processes. The present paper aims to delineate a method for evaluating usability throughout an MDE development life cycle by considering conceptual models as input. To do this, two main contributions are proposed. The first one, called usability-driven model transformation, aims to ensure that an intermediate artifact with the required level of usability is generated. It controls the model transformation process according to a set of usability attributes. The second contribution, called early usability evaluation, performs the usability evaluation from the conceptual models by defining metrics based on conceptual primitives that constitute the conceptual models. This evaluation would be a significant advantage with regard to saving time and resources. The early usability evaluation is empirically validated by comparing the usability measure obtained by our proposal and the level of usability perceived by the end-users.

Towards optimizing the usability of user interface generated with model-driven development process

Usability is crucial to determine the success/failure of the user interfaces. This can explain the ever-increasing number of publications addressing the problem of usability integration during the development process. These studies aim to guide the development process of the user interface according to a set of usability attributes. In fact, the selection of the alternative transformation depends on the usability attributes that will be met. However, the major weakness of these studies is related to the choice of the optimal alternative model transformation. The present paper introduces an approach that addresses this weakness and generates the user interface conceptual model with an optimal usability. The main objective is to select from all the possible alternative transformations the optimal one which maximizes the usability value in a specific context (e.g., small-screen device, novice user). By considering the inherent features of the model-driven engineering, the proposed approach aims to generate the final user interface with an optimal usability value.

A fuzzy-logic system for the user interface usability measurement

Usability is a quality factor that pointed out as being one of the most important factors in the acceptance of software engineering systems by end users. This can be explained by the increasing number of studies addressing the integration of the usability evaluation at the development process. However, most of these proposals aim to drive the selection of adequate alternative transformation according to a set of usability requirements. This paper proposed an approach that considers the interactive systems generation process as a usability optimization problem by the model-driven engineering approach. The aims was to generate all possible concrete user interfaces from a given abstract user interface. Then, the usability optimization process selects the optimal concrete user interface for a specific context of use.

Model-driven Engineering for Optimizing the Usability of User Interfaces

Usability is considered to be one of the most important quality factors that determine the success or failure of an interactive system. This can be explained by the ever-increasing number of studies addressing the integration of the usability evaluation at the development process. However, most of these proposals aim to guide the user interface transformation process according to a set of usability criteria allowing the generation of user interfaces which meet the usability requirement. In fact, the selection of the adequate alternative transformation depends on the usability attributes that will be met. This paper proposed an approach that considers the user interface generation process as a usability optimization problem according to given usability optimization objectives. The aims to generate all possible concrete user interfaces from a given abstract user interface. Then, the usability optimization process selects the optimal concrete user interface for a specific context of use.

Incorporating Usability into Model Transformation

Model transformation is a central concept in model-driven development approach, having the capability to generate the system code from a conceptual model that specifies the system abstractly. We notice the lack of model transformation technologies that deal with usability from the first step of the transformation process. Usability features are usually implemented later once the system code is generated. In the present work we propose a strategy to deal with usability in a model transformation technology. We show that the selection of alternative transformation based on usability criteria ensure that the target model will maximize these criteria.

Usability driven model transformation

Model Driven Engineering (MDE) is a software approach which promotes the use of models and model transformations as primary artifacts in the development process. Recently there has been wide interest in applying MDE approach in the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) field. It has been proved that MDE is an appropriate technique to generate as automatically as possible the final user interface from the conceptual model. Given a source model there may be several ways to transform it into target model. Alternative target models are equivalent from the functional perspective and may differ in their usability attributes. Driven the model transformation process by the usability properties is as yet unexplored territory. This study attempts to enter this territory by showing how the control of the selection of the alternative transformations based on the desired usability criteria can be an appealing way to ensure the usability of the generated artifact.

An Approach for Incorporating the Usability Optimization Process into the Model Transformation

Model transformation plays an important role in the model-driven engineering (MDE) approach which has the capability to generate the system code from a conceptual model. In fact, it describes the process of converting one model into another of the same system. Considering a source model, there may be several ways to transform it into target models with the desired usability attributes. This paper proposed an original approach that considers the interactive systems generation process as a usability optimization problem by the MDE approach. The aims were to generate all possible concrete user interfaces from a given abstract user interface. Then, the usability optimization process selects the model transformation were the desired usability attributes are fulfilled.

Dealing with Usability in Model-Driven Development Method

Usability is crucial for the acceptance of Interactive Systems (IS) by end users. Unusable User Interfaces (UI) are probably the main reason why IS fail in actual use. This can explains the increasing number of Usability Evaluation Method proposed in the literature. However, most of these methods are focused on the final product which greatly reduced the ability to go back and makes major changes. Recently, and due to the increasing interest in Model Driven Engineering (MDE) paradigm, the conceptual models have become the backbone of the IS development process. Therefore, evaluating the usability from the conceptual models would be a significant advantage with regard to saving time and resources. The present chapter proposes an early usability evaluation method that is based on conceptual models. The usability evaluation can be automated taking as input the conceptual models that represent the system abstractly. As an output it provides a usability report which contains the detected usability problems. The usability report is analyzed in order to identify the source of problems and suggest changes in the development process.

Towards an MDE-based approach for usability evaluation of plastic user interface

The present paper proposes a Model Driven Engineering (MDE) approach for the usability evaluation at an early stage of the plastic user interface development process. The intermediate artifacts are evaluated to check whether the generated plastic user interface meets the required usability level. Therefore, this paper focuses on the definition of a usability method to evaluate internal usability.