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This document is for Xerox internal use only A Methodology for User Interface Design by Charles Irby and Linda Bergsteinsson, ITG Systems Development Division Thomas Moran, William Newman and. Larry Tesler, Palo Alto Research Center JANUARY 1977 XEROX PALO ALTO RESEARCH CENTER 3333 Coyote Hill Road / Palo Alto / California 94304 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY GROUP SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT DIVISION 3406 Hillview Avenue / Palo Alto / California 94304 This document is for Xerox internal use only Preface In April 1976, a working group was formed at the Xerox Palo Alto facility to study the problem of user interface design. . The group was led by Chafles Irby, and included Linda Bergsteinsson, Tom Moran. William Newman and Larry Tesler as its other full-time members. The group met on a weekly basis throughout the spring and summer of ~976. David Liddle and Butler Lampson attended some of the early meetings. User interface design is an essential part' of the design of interactive application programs. The user interface encompasses the set of commands by which the user operates the program, the display techniques used to present the state of the program to him, and the more abstract notions involved in learning how to operate the program effectively. Successful user interface design is crucial to the production of useful Office Information Systems. The working group decided at one of its earliest meetings that it could not attempt to propose an actual design for an OIS user interface. The reasons for this lie in the complex nature of user interface design, and the difficulty of performing the design without a thorough analysis of the task. Theseproblerns are- discussed further in the main report. The group therefore concentrated its efforts on developing a straightforward methodology for user interface design. This methodology is presented in the report. Included with the report is a detailed description of a user interface developed along the lines suggested. The working group will now turn its attention to interaction with the application designers and subsequent design of the user interface facilities for OIS. Acknowledgement We wish to thank the many people who provided useful comments and suggestions about this report, in particular D. DeSantis. A. Kay. R. Kimball, T. Mott, R. Sproull and R. Taylor. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 2 Task Analysis 2 .. The Three Components of the User Interface 3 The Design Process 5 Conclusion