CMF: a coherent modelling framework for task-based user interface design

摘要

User interface design should be strongly guided by the user's tasks to be executed with the systme. One practical way of achieving this is the explicit support of the transition from task modelling to dialogue modelling. Here, the integration of the models plays a central role. The models to be used are still under discussion and the adoption of their meta-models becomes an increasing requirement of tools supporting task-based user interface design. To cope with these aspects and as a first step towards modelling explicit links between task models and dialogue models we propose a theoretical modelling framework, called Coherent Modelling Framework CMF, supported by a general modelling tool. This framework can house task models as well as dialogue models, thus integrating them and enabling a smooth transition between the two. In fact, the approach is even more general, covering virtually any type of discrete modelling structure. The approach covers the single virtually any type of discrete modelling structure. The approach covers the single models, allows expressing links between the models, and enables the designer to modify the meta-models, i.e.the models describing the models used. In this paper we discuss the modelling framework and briefly describe a proof-concept-version of a tool supporting it.