An Object-Oriented Model for Designing the Humam-Computer Interface Of Hypermedia Applications

This paper presents an object-oriented approach to specifying the user interface of a hypermedia application using the Abstract Data Views (ADVs) concept. We discuss ADVs in the context of an object-oriented hypermedia design method (OOHDM) showing how to specify the interface aspects of hypermedia objects including nodes, links and access structures such as indexes and guided tours using high-level abstraction and composition mechanisms such as aggregation and generalization/specialization. We state that (ADVs) make it possible to describe, in an abstract, implementationindependent way, a number of relationships including the media objects perceived by the user of the hypermedia application, the mode of interaction with these objects, and the interface transformations that occur while navigating through the hypermedia. In addition, we present ADVcharts and Configuration Diagrams as a design tool to specify both the interface and the static relationships between interface objects and navigational objects in the hypermedia application. In the discussion of ADVcharts, a notation that combines concepts from Statecharts, Objectcharts and Petri Nets, we show how to specify the dynamic aspects of a hypermedia application, in particular the interface transformations that occur when certain media objects are "activated" during navigation. Finally we discuss some further issues such as the description of reusable interface objects and patterns of interaction styles, and compare our approach with other formal models used during hypermedia interface design.