Interaction flow modeling language: model-driven UI engineering of web and mobile apps with IFML

摘要

Modeling in software engineering is not a new phenomenon. The basic tenets of software engineering process modeling include software life cycle management in terms of reflecting user-centered behavior, enhancing durability, and providing interactive user interfaces for better engagement. Models do provide the simulated ambiance for the architects, designers, developers, and users of the software as products and/or services to engage and rework until near perfect and useful behavior of the software is reflected. Over the years, abundant interventions have emerged in the software engineering discipline, including the unified modeling language, extreme programming, and user-centered designs supported by architectural artifacts and ontology. However, user interfaces have always remained a challenging area for architects, designers, and developers. The complexity of modeling to achieve desired user interfaces has grown manifold due to the ever-increasing demand for the seamless convergence of devices, software, communication media and modes, and user interfaces (for example, Internet of Things (IoT)). This dynamic situation in which issues related to applications, devices, interfaces, and front-end access raise the thresholds of quality, security, ease of use, and usability calls for better alignment among all these constituents (especially back-end and front-end). Therefore, modeling is perhaps the only way to provide durable results.