Pattern-driven engineering of interactive computing systems (PEICS)

Abstract

Since almost one decade HCI pattern languages are one popular form of design knowledge representations which can be used to facilitate the exchange of best practices, knowledge and design experience between the interdisciplinary team members and allow the formalization of different user interface aspects. Since patterns usually describe the rational in which context they should be applied (when), why a certain pattern should be used in a specific use context (why) and how to implement the solution part (how) they are suitable to describe different user interface aspects in a constructive way.But despite intense research activities in the last years, HCI pattern languages still lack in a lingua franca, a common language for the standardized description and organization of the pattern. This makes it difficult to design suitable tools that support the developers in applying HCI patterns in model-based user interface development (MBUID) processes. To enable the constructive use of HCI patterns in the model-based development process the informal textual, or graphical notation of HCI patterns has to be overcome.Besides that, evaluating the effectiveness of a pattern, i.e. when is a pattern a 'good' pattern is an important issue that has to be tackled to fully benefit from HCI patterns and to improve their applicability in future design processes.