Integrating interaction design and log analysis: Bridging the gap with UML, XML and XMI

In this paper, we describe and discuss a formal methodology that integrates the conceptual design of the user interaction for interactive systems with the analysis of the interaction logs. It is based on (i) formalizing, via UML state diagrams, the functionality that is supported by a system and the valid interactions that can take place; (ii) deriving XML schemas for capturing the interactions in activity logs; (iii) deriving log parsers that reveal the system states and the state transitions that took place during the interaction; and (iv) analyzing the state activities and the state transitions in order to describe the user interaction or to test some research hypotheses. While this approach is rather general and can be applied in studying a variety of interactive systems, it has been devised and applied in research work on exploratory information retrieval, where the focus is on studying the interaction and on finding interaction patterns. The details of the methodology are discussed and exemplified for a mediated retrieval experiment.