Research On Key Technology In User Interface Design

Nowadays, with the development of many new kinds of pen-based interactive devices, user interface should support pen-based interaction. Traditional user interface which is designed for WIMP interfaces can not be directly used for pen-based interactive devices. Moreover, when the same service is deployed on different pen-based interactive devices for different user groups, corresponding user interface redesigned for particular device is time-consuming. Most of the working time of designers has been spent on user interfaces and most contemporary pen-based interface techniques have not reached a desired condition, so pen-based UIDE (User Interface Developing Environment) needs further study.This paper proposed the abstract description for form-based user interfaces used in many kinds of pen-based devices, provided the translation from AIOs (Abstract Interactive Objects) to CIOs (Concrete Interactive Objects). Model-based techniques are used to research UIDE, and many concepts are included, such as interactive patterns, AUI (Abstract User Interface), UIDL (user interface description language), user interface modeling by the tools similar with UML. In the UIDE, PM (Presentation Model), TM (Task Model) and DM (Domain Model) are more concerned, and pen interaction are introduced into the UIDE to make the informal pen input facilitate the formal user interfaces.Problems which have been come across in form-based interfaces are declared firstly. With the introduction to the phylogeny, state of the art and the trend of UIDE, the architecture and techniques are discussed. For the specific application of filling in the form to collect data with pen, the architecture for pen-based and form-based user interfaces is posed, and declarative models are introduced, especially the PM. PM is discussed from four aspects: the appearance, the distribution and reaction of the events, and the relationship between the forms, and events defined react to pen input are studied. The implementation of TM, PM and DM are declared and mapping rules are specifiedbetween models. PM is discussed in detail from two aspects: structure and behavior. According to the definition of the AIO in PM and the analysis and comparison of kinds of UIDL, the customized UIDL is proposed to serialize the AIOs and the parsing algorithms are provided. Finally the instances of interaction in a single form and between forms are given.With the discuss of the appearance, display policy, event handling mechanism and relationship between forms of the form-based and pen-based user interfaces, AIOs DComponent and DContainer are posed, and widgets in programming languages are provided. In addition, DContainer is classified.Model-based techniques are used to create the TM, DM and PM in UIDE. With the description of the AIOs in PM, according to the widgets mapping in the specific environment to the specific user interface element, models for the end-user interfaces can be generated. According to the models, high level specification can be built. This specification can be interchanged and shared on the basis of language level used for different devices.