Evaluation of Model-Based User Interface Development Approaches

The PaMGIS framework was developed at Augsburg University of Applied Sciences and is aimed at supporting user interface designers without profound software development skills to specify the diverse models which allow for at least semi-automated generation of user interface source code. Currently these are task, dialog, interaction, and layout models as well as user, device, and environment models. The complexity of the model definitions is reduced by the application of patterns of various types and different abstraction levels. These patterns are specified by means of the PaMGIS Pattern Specification Language PPSL that is a further refinement of the Pattern Language Markup Language PLML. Amongst other descriptive information PPSL specifications incorporate sophisticated pattern relationships and model fragments, which are deployed as soon as an individual pattern is applied. In this context we have evaluated existing model-based user interface development frameworks in order to elicit new ideas to improve the applicability of PaMGIS.