Creating a User-Centered CAD-HCI Tool to Reduce Costs of Replacing User Interfaces in Legacy Systems

Harmonia, Inc. proposes an innovative approach to modernize and integrate new HCIs into legacy software. The approach centers on a software design tool called Computer-Assisted Design-Human/Computer Interface (CAD-HCI) that supports an enhanced, user-centered, UIML-based user interface design process. The enhanced process uses the best available model-based techniques to generate HCIs. It starts with a user task model and each subsequent model progressively adds detail to the design. The approach uses XML representations of task models, abstract HCIs, concrete HCIs, target platforms, and legacy code application programming interfaces (APIs) to improve traceability through the process and increase portability of design artifacts. CAD-HCI automates transitions between models by allowing the HCI designer to manage and establish mappings between these XML representations. The approach will span the gap between usability and object-oriented software engineering by supporting rapid prototyping of user interfaces for usability engineering and derivation of tactical HCI code for deployment.