A Compositional View of User Interfaces - A Framework for Fully-Functional User Interface Design Tools

Abstract

A compositional view of user interfaces identifies common user interface component types and structuring principles for assembling components into a coherent interface. Both the components and the principles are reusable across different interfaces. A user interface is represented as a composition of primitives, where selection of primitives and their structuring depend on the application for which an interface is built, and on a desired dialogue style. A model based on the compositional view can support a wide range of different designs and easy transitions from one design to another. We describe the model and a tool built on top of it, and give examples of structures built by the tool, to illustrate how primitives can be assembled to meet requirements of a specific application and a dialogue style.