Multi-model and Multi-level Development of User Interfaces

Vanderdonckt, Jean [UCL] Taddeo Leandro da, Silva Rodrigues, Daniel Silva, Wilker Limbourg, Quentin Furtado, Elizabeth Furtado João José, Vasco et al.[show all]

Universal design of user interfaces addresses design issues in multiple contexts of use where multiple types of users carry out multiple tasks, possibly in multiple domains of interest. Existing development methods do not necessarily support the development of such user interfaces, as they do not establish commonalities and differences between these multiple interfaces in different contexts of use. To address this need, a new development method is presented based on three levels of abstraction: (i) a conceptual level where a domain expert defines an ontology of concepts, relationships, and attributes of the domain of discourse, including user modelling; (ii) a logical level where a designer specifies multiple models based on the previously defined ontology and its rules; and (iii) a physical level where a developer develops multiple user interfaces from the previously specified models based on characteristics in the user models."