Avaliação iterativa da especificação de interfaces com ênfase na navegação.

Abstract

This thesis presents a method and its supporting tools to be used in the specification phase of the user interface component of interactive systems. This method is based upon model building (formal and informal) and associates an evaluation procedure to each of its steps. The purpose of this method is to ensure quality in use for a user interface prototype derived from its application. To support the method, two tools were developed. A data-logging tool to be used with the prototype during empirical evaluations, and another tool to support the structural analysis of the prototype features. Both tools have proven to help locate potential usability problems and represent a valuable help in the search for solutions for these problems. The method adopts the formalism MAD [SG 89] for task analysis and description, and presents an algorithm for converting from the MAD task description into an Interaction Model Representation. The method presents a navigation model built in Petri Net to analyse user interface navigation characteristics. This model is built and analysed with the help of an existing tool - Design CPN [MSC 93]. This document illustrates the method's application by means of a case study - the conception of the user interface component for an Internet browser.