Using patterns to support the design of flexible user interaction

Author(s)

Baranauskas, A. Cecilia C. ; Neris, Vania Paula de Almeida ; Jacko, JA

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: Lecture Notes in Computer Science; v. 4550, p. 3-pg., 2007-01-01.

Abstract

The social value of Web applications is in their potential to be the conduit for many different types of applications to many different people, using different resources and embedded in diverse contexts. Designing for flexibility involves many people, with different skills, interests and levels of commitment, including, designers, developers and users. Tailorable features in the user inter-face demand a clear bond between the phases in the whole software lifecycle, starting from requirements elicitation to the design and development stages. As interaction patterns have been considered a promising approach to bridge the gaps between analysis, design and implementation of usability related features, this work first investigates and synthesizes from literature a set of interaction patterns related to tailoring activities. From this analysis, a semiotic-informed categorization of tailorable user interface features is presented and discussed; an elicitation pattern for tailorable user interface features illustrates the usefulness of the proposal. (AU)