1 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 Modeling User Interfaces to Workflow Information Systems Josefina Guerrero 1, Jean Vanderdonckt 1, Juan M. Gonzalez 1, Marco Winckler 1,2 1 Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) Louvain School of Management (LSM) Belgian Laboratory of Computer-Human Interaction (BCHI) 2 LIIHS-IRIT, Université Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne, F Toulouse (France)

2 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 No communication channel Introduction – Problem description

3 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 Introduction – Possible solution Workflow management technology as a possible solution The term Workflow is referring to the handling of businesses processes using information systems, and denominates the automation of a business process, in whole or part

4 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 Introduction Workflow in a corporate environment.

5 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, To identify –how tasks are structured, who performs them, what their relative order is, how they are synchronized, how information flows to support the tasks, and how tasks are being tracked 2.Improving efficiency within the business. By automating many of the processes within a business and establishing a procedure that is consistently followed, unnecessary steps are eliminated, and every member of the team is fully aware of his or her responsibilities. 3.Allows the customer to feel completely involved in the entire process and capable of getting answers to important questions in a timely fashion. 4.Makes it easier to track employee and machine performance. What is workflow for? Introduction

6 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 Proposal A methodology for developing the various user interfaces of a workflow information system, which are advocated to automate processes, following a model-centric approach based on the requirements and processes of the organization. The methodology applies to: 1)integrate human and machines based activities, in particular those involving interaction with IT applications and tools 2)to identify how tasks are structured, who perform them, what their relative order is, how they are offered or assigned, and how tasks are being tracked.

7 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 Proposal Our proposal should reflect the whole method, i.e. the 3 facets: models, method (step-wise approach), and tool. A method is a way of doing something, especially a systematic way; implies an orderly logical arrangement. The user interface is the aggregate of means by which people (the users) interact with a particular machine, device, or computer program.

8 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 Conceptual modeling of workflow What? How?

9 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 User interface derivation

10 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 User interface derivation from task model

11 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008

12 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 Method

13 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 Case study - Definition A funding agency provides organizations with funds for buying laboratory equipment, hardware and software, or a combination of them. The workflow goals are threefold: –allow any organization manager to register to the system and apply for equipment funding; –insert any equipment description and usage modalities once an equipment has been funded and acquired; –share the usage of acquired material by renting them.

14 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 Case study - Building the workflow model

15 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 Case study - Building the task model

16 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 Case study - Deriving the UI model and generating the UI code.

17 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 Case study - Running the workflow

18 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 Conclusion Benefits –An approach for designing user interfaces of workflow information systems Structured into steps, rigorous, partially formal Based on models of task, process, and workflow Including a model of the organisation –Supported by a software (based on State Charts Diagram, then Petri Nets) Limitations –UI fragments should be manually attached to states of the diagram –Several functioning modes: workflow designer, workflow developer, and workflow end user Future work –Semi-automated generation of User Interfaces based on the workflow model

19 ICAS’2008 – Gosier, March 16-21, 2008 Thank you very much for your attention For more information and downloading, User Interface eXtensible Markup Language European network on Multimodal UIs Special thanks to all members of the team!