Towards a task-based methodology for designing GUIs

Task models are an important abstraction in the design of graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The role of task modelling in interface development is briefly reviewed, and an experimental methodology for high level GUI design is described in which task modelling forms a continuous thread. The methodology includes a task decomposition derived from essential modelling, the construction of a dialogue specification using Lean Cuisine+, and a mapping from Lean Cuisine+ into User Action Notation which opens the way for the construction of a prototype of the interface under design. An example is used to illustrate this approach to GUI design.