User Interface Development Life Cycle Research Articles

Evolutionary design of user interfaces for workflow information systems

In this paper we argue that user interface design should evolve from iterative to evolutionary in order to support the user interface development life cycle in a more flexible way. Evolutionary design consists of taking any input that informs to the lifecycle at any level of abstraction and its propagation through inferior and superior levels (vertical engineering) as well as the same level (horizontal engineering). This lifecycle is particularly appropriate when requirements are incomplete, partially unknown or to be discovered progressively. We exemplify this lifecycle by a methodology for developing user interfaces of workflow information systems. The methodology involves several models (i.e., task, process, workflow, domain, context of use) and steps. The methodology applies model-driven engineering to derive concrete user interfaces from a workflow model imported into a workflow management system in order to run the workflow. Instead of completing each model step by step, any model element is either derived from early requirements or collected in the appropriate model before being propagated in the subsequent steps. When more requirements are elicited, any new element is added at the appropriate level, consolidated with the already existing elements, and propagated to the subsequent levels. A workflow editor has been developed to support the methodology.

Special issue: Knowledge-based Environments and Services in Human-Computer Interaction

This special issue on “Knowledge-based Environments and Services in Human-Computer Interaction” aims at presenting some novel environments and services and relevant challenging issues and proposed solutions that allow users to interact with computers more efficiently. As computer users are spreading and include people of all ages, backgrounds, professions, education levels, aims, profiles, preferences and personalities, human-computer interaction has to undertake the difficult task of user modeling, personalization, adaptivity, virtual reality, intelligent multimedia interaction and so on. The special issue focuses on both theoretical issues as well as applications of intelligent environments for human-computer interaction including challenges, open research issues, design methodologies, user interface development life cycle, empirical studies, multimedia/multimodal signal processing and evaluation. We have received a large number of submissions to the special issue. Each submitted paper was reviewed by at least two independent reviewers for novelty and clarity of the research reported in it. Additionally, as guest co-editors, we looked over all the manuscripts. For inclusion in the special issue, we have selected six papers from those submitted. The first two papers describe novel user modeling approaches in human-computer interaction environments. Specifically, the first paper, authored by Savvopoulos and Virvou, is on a “User Modelling Server for Adap-

Special issue on Knowledge-based Modes of Human-Computer Interaction

This special issue on “Knowledge-based Modes of Human-Computer Interaction” aims at presenting some novel ways and relevant challenging issues of how users interact with computers in knowledge-based environments. As computer users are spreading and include people of all ages, backgrounds, professions, education levels, aims, profiles, preferences and personalities, human-computer interaction has to undertake the difficult task of personalization, adaptivity, virtual reality presentation, intelligent multimedia interaction and so on. The special issue focuses on both theoretical issues as well as applications of intelligent user interfaces within the area of human-computer interaction including methodologies, design environments, user interface development life cycle, empirical studies, multimedia/multimodal signal processing and evaluation. We have received a large number of submissions to the special issue. Each submitted paper was reviewed by at least two independent reviewers for novelty and clarity of the research reported in it. Additionally, as guest co-editors, we looked over all the manuscripts. For inclusion in the special issue, we have selected six papers from those submitted. The first four papers describe novel multimodal ways of human-computer interaction. Specifically, the first paper, authored by Alepis and Virvou, is on “Object Oriented Architecture for Affective Multimodal eLearning Interfaces.” The second paper, authored by

Propagating experience-based accessibility guidelines to user interface development

This paper presents a methodological approach towards the integration of accessibility guidelines into the user interface development life cycle. The term accessibility guidelines refers to the consolidated design wisdom, as documented in general recommendations, principles of good practice, experience-based heuristics or otherwise ‘blessed’ rules, regarding the construction of interactive computer-based software for people with disabilities. At the core of the proposed method is the use of a design repository and a supporting tool environment capable of encapsulating, customizing and reusing experience-based accessibility wisdom, so as to facilitate the integration of previously generated, tested and agreed, accessibility recommendations into new design cases and user interface implementations. It is argued that the proposed approach eliminates some of the limitations or shortcomings associated with more conventional methods, such as the use of paper-based guidelines, or reviews by experts, while it facilitates more effective communication amongst designers and developers of user interfaces.