Facilitating the exploration of interface design alternatives: the Humanoid model of interface design

Abstract

Humanoid is a user interface design tool that lets designers express abstract conceptualizations of an interface in an executable form, allowing designers to experiment with scenarios and dialogues even before the application model is completely worked out. Three properties of the Humanoid approach allow it to do so: a modularization of design issues into independent dimensions, support for multiple levels of specificity in mapping application models to user interface constructs, and mechanisms for constructing executable default user interface implementations from whatever level of specificity has been provided by the designer.