Towards Uniformed Task Models in a Model-Based Approach

Multiple versions and expressions of task models used in user interface design, specification, and verification of interactive systems have led to an ontological problem of identifying and understanding concepts which are similar or different across models. This variety raises a particular problem in model-based approaches for designing user interfaces as different task models, possibly with different vocabularies, different formalisms, different concepts are exploited: no software tool is able today to accommodate any task models as input for a user-centred design process. DOLPHIN is a software architecture that attempts to solve this problem by introducing uniform task models. A series of representative task models was first selected. The meta-models of these individual task models were then designed and merged into a uniformed task meta-model. Semantic mapping rules between individual task meta-models and the uniformed task meta-model allow DOLPHIN to read and understand any potential task model towards its exploitation in a model-based approach.