Prototyping and simulation tools for user/computer dialogue design

Abstract

The design and development of user interfaces to interactive computer systems is enhanced by permitting designers to easily express their design concepts in concrete, comprehensive, and comprehensible working models. A set of prototyping and simulation tools has been developed to be used as an integral part of the specification and design process. These include an interactive display building utility and a syntax-driven interactive dialogue controller. The display builder is used to develop initial conceptual snapshots of system display appearance at selected points in the user/system dialogue. The dialogue controller interprets a grammatical description of input tools and system logic, using predrawn and dynamically constructed displays to simulate the external appearance of the desired end system.