towards canonical task types for user interface design

1 November 9-11, 2009 - Mérida, Mexico CLIHC’09

Towards Canonical Task Types for User Interface Design

Juan Manuel Gonzalez-Calleros, Josefina Guerrero-García, Jean Vanderdonckt and Jaime Muñoz-Arteaga

Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Louvain School of Management (LSM)

Information Systems Unit (ISYS)[email protected]

[email protected]

Sistemas de Información Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes

[email protected]


Outline

1. Introduction2. State of the Art3. A comparative analysis of User Interface

Actions 4. Practical Use of the canonical list of task

types5. Case Study6. Conclusion


Introduction

• The task model is today a cornerstone of many activities carried out during the User Interface (UI) development life cycle, such as, but not limited to: – user-centred design, – task analysis – task modelling– model-driven engineering of user interfaces– human activity analysis– safety critical systems– real-time systems.


Model-driven engineering of user interfaces

Environment T

Final userInterface T

Concrete userInterface T

Task and Domain T

Abstract userInterface T

T=Target context of use

Concrete userInterface S

Final userInterface S

Task and Domain S

Abstract userInterface S

S=Source context of use

Reification

Abstraction

Reflexion

Translation

http://www.plasticity.org

UsiXMLunsupported

model

UsiXMLsupported

model

User S Platform S Environment S Platform TUser T


Introduction

• The many degrees of freedom offered by task modelling should not let us to forget the quality of the resulting task model.

• Labels, definitions, goals, and properties used for a task suffer from many drawbacks– Limited:

•completeness in task modeling•consistency in task modeling•correctness in task modeling

Introduction

• Modelling a task based on well-defined semantics and using a well-understood notation are key aspects.

• A list of canonical task types is proposed that addresses the aforementioned concerns of task modelling.

• Our goal is to provide methodological means to systematically derive UI.

• The list is just about the name of the task and properties and not its structure, thus remaining flexible for task modelling.



Outline





State of the art

• Several MBUI development methods rely on attributes that describe the User Interface interaction ([Frank 1993] [Paternò 2002][Puerta 1997] ...)

• The User Interface interaction is composed of two elements: – The task type sometimes referred as UI action or activity

– The task item, as proposed by [Constantine 2002], that is manipulated or required in the UI interaction.


State of the art

• Task Types Name spaces have been created in different research domains:• Graphical User

Interfaces• Web Interaction• Input Devices


State of the art

• Some taxonomies of task Types are very much related to interaction devices [Foley 1984]

SELECTION

S1 From screen with direct pick device S1.1 Light pen S1.2 Touch pane; S2 Indirect with cursor match S2.1 Tablet S2.2 Mouse S2.3 Joystick (absolute) S2.4 Joystick (velocity) S2.5 Trackball S2.6 Cursor control keys S3 With character string name (See text input) S4 Time scan S4.1 Programmed function keyboard S4.2 Alphanumeric keyboard S5 Button Push S5.1 Programmed function keyboard S5.2 Soft keys S6 Sketch recognition S6.1 Tablet and stylus S6.2 Light pen S7 Voice input S7.1 Voice recognizer P1 Direct with locator device P1.1 Touch panel P2 Indirect with locator device P2.1 Tablet P2.2 Mouse P2.3 Joystick (absolute) P2.4 Joystick (velocity-controlled) P2.5 Trackball P2.6 Cursor control keys with auto-repeat P3 Indirect with directional commands P3.1 Up-down-left-right arrow keys (See selection) P4 With numerical coordinates (See text input) P5 Direct with pick device P5.1 Light pen tracking P5.2 Search for light pen O1 Indirect with locator device O1.1 Joystick (absolute) O1.2 Joystick (velocity-controlled) O2 With numerical value (See text input) Q1 Direct with valuator device Q1.1 Rotary potentiometer Q1.2 Linear potentiometer Q2 With character string value (See text input) Q3 Scale drive with one axis of locator device Q3.1 Tablet Q3.2 Mouse Q3.3 Joystick (absolute) Q3.4 Joystick (velocity-controlled) Q3.5 Trackball Q4 Light handle Q4.1 Light pen Q4.2 Tablet with stylus Q5 Up-down count controlled by commands Q5.1 Programmed function keyboard Q5.2 Alphanumeric keyboard T1 Keyboard T1.1 Alphanumeric T1.2 Chord T2 Stroked character recognition T2.1 Tablet with stylus T3 Voice recognition T3.1 Voice recognizer T4 Direct pick from menu with locator device T4.1 Light pen T4.2 Touch panel T5 Indirect pick from menu with locator device (See positioning)

POSITION

ORIENT

QUANTIFY

TEXT


State of the art

• Shortcomings:• Always dependency between the name space

and the modality of interaction• Cognitive tasks• Gestures• Feedback• System Functionalities


Outline


Actions4. Practical Use of the canonical list of task



A comparative analysis of User Interface Actions

• More than two hundred names were identified.



• Comparative analysis on the name spaces• Comparing names• Context of use • Definitions

• Group task types with similar definitions but different names (choose, select, …)

• Determine which was the most abstract set of task considering• Modality and platform independent


Outline

1. Introduction2. State of the Art 3. A comparative analysis of User Interface

Actions4. Practical Use of the canonical list of task


Practical Use of the canonical list of task types


1. Help to decide how to name a task

For example, for a multimodal task



2. Selection of task type and task item



3. Selection of user categories

4. User Interface Concretization of the Task



Concrete userInterface S

Final userInterface S

Task and Domain S

Abstract userInterface S

Task Type + Action Item

Facet

Select + Element

Input

Concrete Interaction Object

Selection Widget



5. User Interface Concretization of the Task based on tables for selecting widgets based on semantic properties


Outline




Case Study


• An Information System of a Travel Agency for organizing a trip

• The scenario and the requirements of the problem are captured in a workflow using FlowiXML [Guerrero 2008]

Case Study


• Tasks in the process are detailed using task models

Case Study


• Attributes identified for the tasks

Task Task Type

Task Item

User category

Facet

Insert Name Create Element Interactive Input

Insert Zip Code Create Element Interactive Input

Select Age category

Select Element Interactive Input

Select Gender Select Element Interactive Input

Case Study


User Interface Action Types Facet Specification Information to take into account Possible Abstract Interaction Component

“create name” and “create zip Code” Create attribute value Data type, domain characteristics A text output with a text input associated to it

“select gender and select age Category”

Select attribute value + selection values known

Data type, domain characteristics, selection values

A dropdown list, a group of radio buttons textual or characters.


Outline




Conclusion

• A list of canonical UI task action types associated to task models was presented.

• This proposal overcomes the limitations of task modeling in the context of MDE UI development

• The proposal provides methodological means to systematically derive UI.

• This work is focused on task modeling specifications and UsiXML


Conclusion

• Future Work– Investigate task relationships – Evaluation of this technique– Multimodal and Multidevice concretization

what if the task is no longer available


For more information and downloading,http://www.isys.ucl.ac.be/bchi

http://www.usixml.orgUser Interface eXtensible Markup Language

http://itea.defimedia.be/usixml-france ITEA2 Call 3 project (2008026)

Special thanks to all members of the team!

Thank you very much for your attention

http://www.isys.ucl.ac.be/bchi

http://www.usixml.org/

http://itea.defimedia.be/usixml-france

towards canonical task types for user interface design

Technology

task november9

mexico clihc09 task

multimodal task

task practical use

task modeling november9

task item november9

list of canonical task

taxonomies of task types