SketchiXML

What is SketchiXML?
SketchiXML is a multi-agent interactive application that enables designers and end users to sketch user interfaces with different levels of details and support for different contexts of use. SketchiXML is intended to convey informal specifications of the interface presentation and dialog. Designers or even end users can sketch some or all of the future interface they want.

The behaviour of the application can be defined with a set of parameters. As an example, the user is free to define if a shape that is recognized should appear differently than an unrecognized shape, or to define the quality required.
Once the design is finished, the results of the sketching are then analyzed to produce interface specifications independently of any context, including user and platform (UsiXML or UIML). These specifications are exploited to progressively produce one or several interfaces, for one or many users, platforms, and environments. In both case we only provide the core properties of these different components since this kind of low fidelity design tool is not supposed to capture detailed information.

The next step in the design process consists in importing the specifications generated in an high-fidelity editor (GrafiXML for UsiXML and LiquidUI for UIML). Using these tools, we are then able to specify all the attributes that could not be specified during the sketching phase.

Screenshots/videos



Two videos are available:

• Video 1: presentation of SketchiXML
• Video 2: output importation in GrafiXML

Last modifications:

• Introduction of a gesture recognizer : the user can provide custom representations for the different widgets or parts of widget. This feature will be extended to cover commands function.
• Generation of UIML : the latest version of SketchiXML supports UIML specification.

Requirements
You need a valid Java™ installation
If you want to compile SketchiXML from sources, you need these packages in your classpath:

• castor-x.y.jar from Exolab
• oro.jar from Jakarta
• xerces2.jar from Apache

Download
You can download SketchiXML here. The archive includes all the necessary libraries. A general presentation of SketchiXML can be also downloaded. . A user guide is also available.

Author
SketchiXML is developed by Adrien Coyette in the context of the Request project. Adrien Coyette is currently Ph.D. researcher at the Unit of Information Systems, School of Management, University of Louvain, Belgium.

Awards
SketchiXML received two awards: the Brian Shackel Award 2007 and the Locomummy Special Prize (2nd Prize) in 2006.

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-.
  
• Coyette, A., Kieffer, S., Vanderdonckt, J., Multi-fidelity Prototyping of User Interfaces, in Proc. of 11th IFIP TC 13 Int. Conf. on Human-Computer Interaction INTERACT’2007 (Rio de Janeiro, 10-14 September 2007), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 4662, Springer-Verlag, 2007, pp. 149-162. Brian Shackel Award
  
• Coyette, A., Schimke, S., Vanderdonckt, J., Vielhauer, C., Trainable Sketch Recognizer for Graphical User Interface Design
  in Proc. of 11th IFIP TC 13 Int. Conf. on Human-Computer Interaction INTERACT’2007 (Rio de Janeiro, 10-14 September 2007), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 4662, Springer-Verlag, 2007, pp. 123-134.
  
• 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., and Limbourg, Q., SketchiXML: An Informal Design Tool for User Interface Early Prototyping, in Proc. of RISE'2006 Workshop on Rapid User Interface Prototyping Infrastructures Applied to Control Systems RUIPICAS'2006 (Geneva, 13 September 2006), M. Risoldi, V. Amaral (Eds.), Geneva, 2006. Invited talk.
  
• 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 .
  
• Coyette, A., Vanderdonckt, J., Computer Assisted Sketching for the Early Stages of User Interface Design, Working Paper IAG n°136/05, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain School of Management, Louvain-la-Neuve, 2005.
  
• Coyette, A., Vanderdonckt, J., Faulkner, S., Kolp, M., Generating Abstract User Interfaces from an Informal Design, Proc. of 17th International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering SEKE'2005 (Taiwan, China, July 14-16, 2005), IJSEKE Press, 2005.
  
• Coyette, A., SketchiXML: A Sketching Tool for Designing User Interfaces for Information Systems, Mémoire de diplôme d'études approfondies, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, 2005.
  
• Coyette, A., Faulkner, S., Kolp, M., Limbourg, Q., Vanderdonckt, J., An Intelligent Tool for Sketching UsiXML User Interfaces, Working Paper IAG n°114/04, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut d'Administration et de Gestion, Louvain-la-Neuve, September 2004.
  
• Coyette, A., Faulkner, S., Kolp, M., Limbourg, Q., Vanderdonckt, J., SketchiXML: Towards a Multi-Agent Design Tool for Sketching User Interfaces Based on UsiXML, Proc. of 3rd Int. Workshop on Task Models and Diagrams for user interface design TAMODIA'2004 (Prague, November 15-16, 2004), Ph. Palanque, P. Slavik, M. Winckler (eds.), ACM Press, New York, 2004, pp. 75-82.