VisiXML

VisiXML is a graphical editor for designing Graphical User Interfaces on top of the Microsoft Visio environment. In this drawing environment, the user drags icons of the language from a palette and drop it onto a working surface area to depict UsiXML elements. VisiXML is intended to support non-developers for mid-fidelity prototyping and specification of Graphical User Interfaces. Therefore, this editor is considered as a mid-fidelity editor as opposed to a low-fidelity editor, such as SketchiXML or a high-fidelity editor as GrafiXML.

For a comparison between various levels of fidelity, see the following reference: Coyette, A., Vanderdonckt, J., A Sketching Tool for Designing Anyuser, Anyplatform, Anywhere User Interfaces, Proc. of 10th IFIP TC 13 Int. Conf. on Human-Computer Interaction Interact'2005 (Rome, 12-16 September 2005), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 3585, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2005, pp. 550-564. .

Therefore, only basic properties of UsiXML elements can be captured to avoid distracting or disturbing the user. Once the design is finsihed, the tools automatically generates the Abstract User Interface level (AUI) and the Concrete User Interface level (CUI) on demand in UsiXML.

VisiXML is developed by Manuel Van Sluys in his Master thesis in Management Sciences at Louvain School of Management.




Requirements

To install VisiXML you need to:

• first install Microsoft Visio
• create a directory where to unzip VisiXML.zip file (you can find the file on All Downloads page)
• launch the .vst file

Note
This software is compatible with UsiXML V1.4.6, but not after. For some parts, it needs to be updated with the last version of UsiXML.

Publications

• Adrien Coyette, A Methodological Framework for Multi-Fidelity Sketching of User Interfaces, Ph.D. thesis, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 22 October 2007. . The slides are also available: private defense-, public defense-.
  
• Vanderdonckt, J., Coyette, A., Modèle, méthodes et outils de support au prototypage multi-fidélité des interfaces graphiques, Revue d’Interaction Homme-Machine, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2007.
  
• Coyette, A., Vanderdonckt, J., and Limbourg, Q., SketchiXML: A Design Tool for Informal User Interface Rapid Prototyping, in Proc. of International Workshop on Rapid Integration of Software Engineering techniques RISE'2006 (Geneva, 13-15 September 2006), N. Guelfi, D. Buchs (Eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 4401, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2007, pp. 160-176. .
  
• Vanderdonckt, J., Coyette, A., Vers un prototypage des interfaces graphiques incluant vraiment l'utilisateur final, Proc. of 10ième Colloque Int. sur l'Ergonomie et l'Informatique Avancée ERGO-IA'2006 (Biarritz, 11-13 October 2006), E. Brangier, Ch. Kolski, J.-R. Ruault (eds.), Ecole Supérieure des Technologies Industrielles Avancées (ESTIA/ILS), Bidart, 2006, pp. 31-42. Keynote address.
  
• Coyette, A., Vanderdonckt, J., A Sketching Tool for Designing Anyuser, Anyplatform, Anywhere User Interfaces, Proc. of 10th IFIP TC 13 Int. Conf. on Human-Computer Interaction Interact'2005 (Rome, 12-16 September 2005), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 3585, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2005, pp. 550-564. International DOI.The slides are also available .
  
• Van Sluys, M., Développement d'un maquetteur d'interfaces à l'aide de Microsoft Visio, M.Sc. thesis, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, September 2004.