Meta-gui-builders: generating domain-specific interface builders for multi-device user interface creation

Abstract

We present a new generation of graphical user interface builder tools (GUI-builder) that allow for the creation of flexible GUI designs and use the vocabulary of the domain for which the GUIs are created. This domain vocabulary contains a set of abstractions that are commonly used in such a domain and a corresponding presentation for each abstraction. This vocabulary is used to generate a GUI builder, so for each different domain the GUI Builder tool encapsulates the domain specific elements in the designer's tool palette. Over time, a vocabulary can be extended or changed when the designer evolves and becomes more familiar with a particular domain.