Specification of Visual Languages as Means for Interaction

Abstract

Interactive and end-user computing are the present challenges of computer science. They suggest the need for providing a specification methodology driving the development of effective interactive visual systems. In this line, we discuss a definition of visual languages which binds the interactive and communicative aspects with the computational ones, thus integrating a theory of visual languages with interaction-related aspects. By adopting this novel point of view, it becomes possible to study visual sentences and visual languages with respect to the basic principle of interaction that the users cannot cause unexpected events or become disoriented by the system behaviour. A classification of visual languages based on their capability of respecting this principle is then discussed and existing visual languages are framed in the classification.