An Ontology-Based Method for Universal Design of User Interfaces

Universal design of user interfaces attempts to cover design issues in multiple contexts of use where multiple types of users may carry out multiple tasks, possibly on multiple domains of interest.

Abstract

Universal design of user interfaces attempts to cover design issues in multiple contexts of use where multiple types of users may carry out multiple tasks, possibly on multiple domains of interest. Existing design methods do not necessarily support designing such user interfaces. A new design method is presented for this purpose in three layers: (i) a conceptual layer where a domain expert defines an ontology of concepts, relationships, and attributes of the domain of discourse; (ii) a logical layer where a designer specifies multiple models based on the previously defined ontology; and (iii) a physical layer where a developer derives multiple user interfaces from the previously specified models with alternatives.