User Interface Management Systems for Engineering Applications

Abstract

Essential features of a User Interface Management System (UIMS) from the perspective of engineering applications user interface development are described. Three commercially available UIMS are validated against this set of essential features and the results of such a categorised evaluation are reported. The proliferation of user interface design tools necessitated an initialfiltering to select these tools on the basis of their availability on a wide range of platforms currently used by engineers, supplier support for the product and the prototyping tools the UIMS offer. Graphic Modelling System (GMS), TeleUSE and USEIT were selected for their potential utility to engineering applications.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1991 European X User Group Annual Conference held at Queens College, Cambridge, UK.This comparative evaluation is compiled on behalf of the UK Science and Engineering Research Council, for the benefit of the UK academic engineering research community.