A UML profile for GUI layout

Abstract

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a visual language for modeling complex systems in an object oriented manner. Although various structural and behavioral aspects of the system under development can be modeled, a description mechanism for graphical user interfaces (GUIs) still lacks. Since UML 2.0 offers profiling mechanisms for extending the existing modeling language by the user, new diagram types which reside on the existing language's metamodel can be added in a lightweight manner. Therefore we propose a UML profile for expressing GUI layout information which allows for modeling the static representation of graphical user interfaces. In contrast to earlier approaches, the profile can be used to create an abstract representation of a GUI based on a notation commonly used by graphics designers. All layout information is added using the recently published UML 2.0 diagram interchange specification. © Springer-Verlag 2004.