Collaborative Modelling of Tasks with CTT: Tools and a Study

The design and systematic development of usable user interfaces (UI) is becoming increasingly important. The use of task models is considered to be the main approach for the specification of the presentation tier in interactive applications. The task modelling for the specification of the interaction in a complex application may require the participation of several designers/engineers. In this paper, the use of a generic modelling groupware tool, SPACE-DESIGN, is proposed for task modelling using CTT notation. To evaluate the benefit of the approach, a comparative study has been conducted with two groups of experienced users: the first group carried out a task modelling activity with SPACE-DESIGN and the other one with the CTTE tool shared by means of Microsoft NetMeeting. Results and conclusions of the study are discussed.