Enhancing user interface design patterns with design rationale structures

ABSTRACT

User interface design and development activities are typically costly and, despite many research efforts, still lack adequate support tools to make them more efficient. The use of guidelines and principles have been mostly replaced by the use of user interface design patterns, collected in libraries that aim to encompass both general and domain-specific user interface design knowledge. However, such patterns are represented mostly in natural language and other representations that cannot be easily computed. This paper presents an approach to represent user interface design patterns in a knowledge base which, by bringing together semi-structured user interface design patterns and design rationale models, can help designers to search, compare, and reuse proven design solutions in their projects.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Standardization

General Terms:
Design, Documentation, Human Factors, Standardization

Keywords:
argumentation model, design rationale, information retrieval, knowledge base, semantic match, user interface design patterns