CSSE Seminar Series (CSSESS)

Quick links: Past seminars,  future seminars,  CSSESS Home

Formal methods are used to precisely specify systems before we build. User-centred design methods aim to ensure we build systems that are usable and in line with users’ expectations. Both aim to build software that is correct. The approaches they take are very different.

Both methods have a proven track record in producing benefits and both have committed practitioners. Formal methods work well at ensuring system behaviour is correct. User-centred design methods work well at ensuring user interfaces are usable and correct.

Using both gives us benefits across all aspects of system development.

We suggest different groups involved in different parts of design use their preferred method, so we retain user-centred design methods for UI, for example, and then we formulate links between the formal and informal processes. We do this by giving ways to interpret the informal within a (very simple) formal framework. We gain integration of existing informal techniques into formal system development methods, which goes towards ensuring consistency between system and UI design and correctness of final implementation.

In this seminar Professor Reeves will look at the background to UCD and FM, show their similarities and differences, and show how consideration of these has led to their models: presentation models (PMs) and presentation interaction models (PIMs). He will then go on to briefly show how this simple framework allows them to develop abstract tests for the UI parts of system (using model-based testing ideas), which then allows them to generate tests for the implementing code and guidelines for developing usability tests.

Quick links: Past seminars,  future seminars,  CSSESS Home