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FWD: CFP: CHI '95 Workshop on Formal Specifications of User Interfaces

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From: rouff@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov (Chris Rouff - 522.1)
Date: 1 Feb 1995 16:40:25 GMT
Subject: CFP: CHI '95 Workshop on Formal Specifications of User Interfaces
Newsgroups: comp.specification

Call For Participation for CHI'95 Workshop

Formal Specification of User Interfaces

May 7-8, 1995 Denver, Colorado, USA

Organizer: Chris Rouff (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)


OVERVIEW

The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers and
practitioners to discuss:

	o Issues and problems surrounding current user interface
	  specification	techniques. 

	o Successes and failures in specification projects.

	o How current techniques could be improved.

	o Areas where current research should be focusing.

Through this workshop it is hoped that better techniques for specifying
user interfaces can be developed.

As user interfaces become more complex it becomes more important to 
communicate among the interface designers, developers, users and customers 
the look and functionality of the interface.  This communication of the user 
interface is done through a specification.  Often interface designers use 
informal or ad hoc techniques for defining the interface which are incomplete 
and/or ambiguous which causes developers, users and customers to interpret 
them differently.

Specifications for user interfaces are often given through prototypes or other 
non-formal specification techniques.  Using a prototype to specify a user 
interface to a programmer would be a lot like an architect giving a model of a 
building to a contractor as the only description as to what to build.  The 
results would be unpredictable and it is doubtful that the customers would 
get what they thought they were getting.

Without a complete, thorough and understandable specification technique, 
misunderstandings will develop and incomplete or invalid user interfaces will 
result.  No matter how usable an interface design is,, if the design is not
well communicated to the developer the result may be unusable.  A well
specified user interfaces can also help designers to discover inconsistencies
and usability problems before the interface is developed saving time and
money.  This is why specifying user interfaces using a formal technique is
important.

For non-user interface software there are many specification techniques that 
are commonly used: entity relation diagrams for modeling data, structure 
charts for functional decomposition, and several object orient specification 
techniques for describing class hierarchy and communication.  There are also 
many formal techniques available for specifying the look and functionality of 
graphical user interfaces, though in practice these specification techniques 
are rarely used.  The result is development of user interfaces that are 
different than what was intended by the designer or envisioned by the 
customer and higher costs for detection and correction of usability problems.

DEADLINE: February 6, 1995 for submission of 1-3 page position paper.
Electronic submission is encouraged.

Send position paper to:

	Chris Rouff
	NASA GSFC
	Code 522.1
	Greenbelt, MD 20771

	Tel: 301-286-2938
	Fax: 301-286-1768

	chris.rouff@gsfc.nasa.gov

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