A generic user interface for hierarchical knowledge-based simulation and control systems.

Abstract

Successful design of the user interface for an interactive system must be sensitive to activities supported by the software and the time users spend in these activities. This dissertation presents a systematic approach to user interface design based on this idea. A control flow model for the interaction between the human and the application is developed and serves as the framework for the proposed approach. Sub-models of the control flow model correspond to actual programming modules and determine the logical system design sequence. The System Entity Structure language is employed to span hierarchical spaces. User interface design is based on the space dimensions of the System Entity Structure pruning process. A Virtual Tree Environment is developed on the TI Explorer to provide a programming facility for implementing user-interfaces. Following the proposed methodology, a system designer can give users an efficient user interface to applications that can be hierarchically described by the System Entity Structure language. The concept can also be implemented on other window systems such as Microsoft Windows and X-windows.