In the relatively brief lifetime of the mobile electronic devices, two major technological trends have taken hold: 1) devices trend toward miniaturization and 2) features, and functions trend toward expansion. But, squeezing more functions into samller terminals makes the devices harder to use. Such an obvious problem has a deep impact and put obstacles on mobile user interface design. In mobile user interface desing process, it is essential for designers to utilize interaction modeling method so that they can better understand the mobile devices and the interaction between the user and the devices. But, there isn't the modeling method specialized for mobile devices and developed under consideration for the characteristeics of mobile interface. The existing methods used in mobile industry and in HCI field expose critical problems in application to mobile user interface design process.
This study aims to suggest diagrammatic interaction modeling method for mobile interface design based on the object-oriented engineering, which can visualize the user's action, activity, interaction sequences, and the state of products. And, it has undergone the following stages: 1) the charateristics of mobile device and interface are examined and the need for interaction modeling method is discussed. 2) the current modeling methods are analyzed thoroughly and the limitations are condensed 3) based on the needs from literature studies, the novel method is developed and applied to mobile phone user interface design process. Two kinds of case studies are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the method and to demonstrate the usage of the method.
The results showed that newly developed method can be utilized effectively at any phase in interface design process and easy to learn how to use. And, diagrammatic notation allows designers to understand and utilize method more intuitively and comperehensively.
