Modeling User Interfaces to Workflow Information Systems

This paper addresses the need for designing user interfaces (UIs) to workflow information systems by adopting a model-centric approach. We introduce a conceptual workflow model to determine system functionalities of workflow. The model is exploited in order to systematically derive UIs to access these functionalities. The workflow model is recursively decomposed into processes which are in turn decomposed into tasks. Each task gives rise to a task model whose structure, ordering, and connection with the domain model allows the automated generation of their corresponding UIs, using a transformational approach. Each UI is specified in a User Interface Description Language, workflow, process, and task models are specified in the same specification language. The language is exploited to generate multiple source codes, depending on how their corresponding tasks are structured in the process model; and by a workflow execution engine to produce running workflow systems. A real-world case is outlined to exemplify the process.