Exploring Interaction Space as Abstraction Mechanism for Task-Based User Interface Design

Designing a user interface is often a complex undertaking. Model-based user interface design is an approach where models and mappings between them form the basis for creating and specifying the design of a user interface. Such models usually include descriptions of the tasks of the prospective user, but there is considerable variation in the other models that are employed. This paper explores the extent to which the notion of interaction space is useful as an abstraction mechanism to reduce the complexity of creating and specifying a user interface design. We present how we designed a specific user interface through use of design techniques and models that employ the notion of interaction space. This design effort departed from the task models in an object-oriented model of the users’ problem and application domains. The lessons learned emphasize that the notion of interactions spaces is a useful abstraction mechanism that can help user interface designers exploit object-oriented analysis results and reduce the complexity of designing a user interface.