1. 1 Auto GUI Generation Ali Adams Bournemouth University, 1999 aliadams@bournemouth.ac.uk

2. 2 Outline Object-oriented Idioms GUI Generation Rules GUI Generation IDE Task-oriented Design Guidelines Conclusion

3. 3 Object-oriented Idioms

4. 4 GUI Generation Rules Class GUI Collection GUI

5. 5 GUI Generation IDE 4 th Generation Software Builder Programmer visually implements the domain problem (OO class diagram) IDE generates database schema and create a back-end database IDE generates screens that are linked and active to accept user interactions.

6. 6 GUI Generation IDE

7. 7

8. 8 GUI Generation Output

9. 9 Task-oriented Design Model user tasks, not software data Hierarchical GUI navigation High usability GUI Standardisation Zero training

10. 10 Guidelines Design it Task-oriented Keep Visual Clues Consistent for High Usability Use High Contrast Colour Schemes Use Harmonic Music with Brain Waves Collect Usage Statistics – find weak/strong design points Adapt Generation Rules to user type: –Visualiser v. Verbaliser –Holistic v. Analytic

11. 11 Conclusion Users can build a logical mental picture of a product’s functionality without the need for documentation. Users can effectively carry out their daily tasks without the overwhelming possible paths offered by current software packages. A practical research programme to investigate task-oriented design tools for automatic GUI generation would accelerate the adoption of 4/5G programming paradigm to streamline software usability.