Assessing usability from formal user-interface designs

Hussey, A.; MacColl, Ian; Carrington, David

doi:10.1109/aswec.2001.948496

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Campos' and Harrison's [11] work has been extended to heuristically assess usability using formal verification, or the output of formal verifications in HCI. For example, Hussey et al [15] identified four usability properties: task efficiency, reuse, robustness, and flexibility. Kamel and Aït-Ameur [16] showed how four usability properties specific to multimodal human-device interfaces could be evaluated formally: complementarity, assignation, redundancy, and equivalence.…”

Section: A User Models In Human-computer Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Human Operator Model for Medical Device Interaction Using Behavior-Based Hybrid Automata

Niezen

Eslambolchilar

2016

IEEE Trans. Human-Mach. Syst.

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This paper describes the design and implementation of a control-theoretic model that can be used to model both the discrete and continuous behavior of a human operator. The human operator model can be used to compare different device user interfaces in terms of human performance. The implemented human operator model combines an ON-OFF control model and a behavior-based hybrid automaton with three controllers. The controllers, defined as continuous, discrete, and fine-tuning behavior, simulate the user's conceptual model of the user interface. The device model used is that of a commercial syringe pump with chevron keys, described as a formal specification. Results of the human operator model simulation were generated for 20 different numbers obtained from syringe pump log files. The simulation results were compared over 33 trials to a lab study employing a device based on the formal specification. The result of the simulation shows a significant similarity to the result of the lab study for all the numbers used.

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Section: A User Models In Human-computer Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Human Operator Model for Medical Device Interaction Using Behavior-Based Hybrid Automata

Niezen

Eslambolchilar

2016

IEEE Trans. Human-Mach. Syst.

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“…e.g., matrix algebra for UI design [37]; -Replacing existing human-centred techniques with formal model-based methods. e.g., using UI descriptions in Object-Z [34] to assess usability [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formal models for user interface design artefacts

Bowen

Reeves

2008

Innovations Syst Softw Eng

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There are many different ways of building software applications and of tackling the problems of understanding the system to be built, designing that system and finally implementing the design. One approach is to use formal methods, which we can generalise as meaning we follow a process which uses some formal language to specify the behaviour of the intended system, techniques such as theorem proving or model-checking to ensure the specification is valid (i.e., meets the requirements and has been shown, perhaps by proof or other means of inspection, to have the properties the client requires of it) and a refinement process to transform the specification into an implementation. Conversely, the approach we take may be less structured and rely on informal techniques. The design stage may involve jotting down ideas on paper, brainstorming with users etc. We may use prototyping to transform these ideas into working software and get users to test the implementation to find problems. Formal methods have been shown to be beneficial in describing the functionality of systems, what we may call application logic, and underlying system behaviour. Informal techniques, however, have also been shown to be useful in the design of the user interface to systems. Given that both styles of development are beneficial to different parts of the system we would like to be able to use both approaches in one integrated software development process. Their differences, however, make this a challenging objective. In this paper we describe models and techniques which allow us to incorporate informal design artefacts into a formal software development process.

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“…we want a way of maintaining correctness. This approach to UI refinement is different from that proposed in works such as [DH95] and [HMC00] in that we are not starting from a single system specification which formalises the UI behaviour as one part of the system, but rather extending traditional UI design methods in a non-traditional, formal manner.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Refinement for user interface designs

Bowen

Reeves

2009

Form. Asp. Comput.

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Abstract. Formal approaches to software development require that we correctly describe (or specify) systems in order to prove properties about our proposed solution prior to building it. We must then follow a rigorous process to transform our specification into an implementation to ensure that the properties we have proved are retained. Different transformation, or refinement, methods exist for different formal methods, but they all seek to ensure that we can guide the transformation in a way which preserves the desired properties of the system. Refinement methods also allow us to subsequently compare two systems to see if a refinement relation exists between the two. When we design and build the user interfaces of our systems we are similarly keen to ensure that they have certain properties before we build them. For example, do they satisfy the requirements of the user? Are they designed with known good design principles and usability considerations in mind? Are they correct in terms of the overall system specification? However, when we come to implement our interface designs we do not have a defined process to follow which ensures that we maintain these properties as we transform the design into code. Instead, we rely on our judgement and belief that we are doing the right thing and subsequent user testing to ensure that our final solution remains useable and satisfactory. We suggest an alternative approach, which is to define a refinement process for user interfaces which will allow us to maintain the same rigorous standards we apply to the rest of the system when we implement our user interface designs.

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Assessing usability from formal user-interface designs

Cited by 7 publications

References 23 publications

A Human Operator Model for Medical Device Interaction Using Behavior-Based Hybrid Automata

A Human Operator Model for Medical Device Interaction Using Behavior-Based Hybrid Automata

Formal models for user interface design artefacts

Refinement for user interface designs

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