Conceptual Modeling for User Interface Development

Conceptual Modeling for User Interface Development introduces the technique of Entity-Relationship-Modeling and shows how the technique can be applied to interface issues. It explains those aspects of entity-relationship modeling which are relevant to ERMIAs, and it presents the extensions to the notation that are necessary for modeling interfaces. This book is aimed at both interface designers and software developers in an attempt to bridge the gap in the development of interactive systems. Too often, when software is being developed, the software engineers do not sufficiently consider how easy the system will be to learn and use. On the other side, interface specialists tend to express their concerns in ways which are either too detailed to be readily understood or in ways which are difficult for the software developer to implement. ERMIA provides a set of concepts which can be used equally easily by software developers and interface designers alike.

"Conceptual Modeling for User Interface Development provides a practical and usable technique for designing and evaluating user interfaces. The technique, called ERMIA, Entity-Relationship Modeling of Information Artefacts, has been developed with both the designers and the users of computer systems in mind, to provide a 'language' in which to express high level issues concerned with the usability of computer software and other 'information artefacts'."--BOOK JACKET. "Professional usability consultants, designers of interactive systems and departmental managers responsible for commissioning or selecting software systems will find this book essential reading, and students of human-computer interaction and software engineering will find it offers a highly readable account of the major problems that can occur when developing human-computer systems."--BOOK JACKET.