Patent Application
20090064098
The invention relates generally to visualization techniques and, more particularly, to a method and system for generating a visual representation of an interaction between a computer system and a user.
Software development often requires the visualization of user requirements based on particular business scenarios or user-system interaction requirements. Such visualizations are helpful in demonstrating the capabilities of a piece of software, enabling software developers, marketing specialists, business analysts, and/or potential users to properly assess user requirements before the software development process is complete.
Typically, such visualizations are created by hand based on the functional specifications of the software and/or user requirements. However, hand-created visualizations are labor intensive to prepare. In addition, making changes to the software functionality and/or user requirements often result in poor traceability or recreation of the hand-created visualizations.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.
The invention provides a method and system for generating a visual representation of an interaction between a computer system and a user.
A first aspect of the invention provides a method of generating a visual representation of an interaction between a computer system and a user, the method comprising: accessing a user scenario comprising: at least one user role; at least one business object; at least one user task; and at least one computer system role; constructing a data view for each business object and an action view for each user task; selecting at least one user-system interaction pattern from a database of pre-defined user-system interaction patterns based on the at least one user role; and generating a visual representation of the user scenario using the data view(s), action view(s), and user-system interaction pattern.
A second aspect of the invention provides a system for generating a visual representation of an interaction between a computer system and a user, the system comprising: a system for accessing a user scenario comprising: at least one user role; at least one business object; at least one user task; and at least one computer system role; a system for constructing a data view for each business object and an action view for each user task; a system for selecting a user-system interaction pattern from a database of pre-defined user-system interaction patterns based on the at least one user role; and a system for generating a visual representation of the user scenario using the data view(s), action view(s), and user-system interaction pattern.
A third aspect of the invention provides a program product stored on a computer-readable medium, which when executed, accesses a user scenario comprising: at least one user role; at least one business object; at least one user task; and at least one computer system role; constructs a data view for each business object and an action view for each user task; selects a user-system interaction pattern from a database of pre-defined user-system interaction patterns based on the at least one user role; and generates a visual representation of the user scenario using the data view(s), action view(s), and user-system interaction pattern.
The illustrative aspects of the present invention are designed to solve the problems herein described and other problems not discussed, which are discoverable by a skilled artisan.
These and other features of this invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description of the various aspects of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings that depict various embodiments of the invention, in which:
It is noted that the drawings of the invention are not to scale. The drawings are intended to depict only typical aspects of the invention, and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scope of the invention. In the drawings, like numbering represents like elements between the drawings.
As shown in
At C, a visual representation of the user scenario is designed. This may include constructing a data view for each business object at C1, constructing an action view for each user task at C2, and selecting a user-system interaction pattern based on a user's role at C3. The user's role in the user scenario of
At D, the visual representation designed at C is generated. Once generated, the visual representation may be presented to a user and, optionally, stored or otherwise indexed for future reference. For example, in the event that the same user accesses the same or a similar user scenario at a later time, some or all of the visual representation generated at D may be retrieved from storage and/or used as a pre-defined template for the generation of a new visual representation.
The foregoing description of various aspects of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed, and obviously, many modifications and variations are possible. Such modifications and variations that may be apparent to a person skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the invention as defined by the accompanying claims.
