ViewNet - Conceptual design and modelling of navigation

This paper presents an approach to modelling navigation structures for complex, database-oriented applications. Navigation dialogues are first classified according to a number of underlying principles. The ViewNet technique is introduced for the conceptual design of the navigation structure of a system. ViewNets are diagrams composed of views and navigation links. Different view types are introduced on the basis of the mapping from conceptual objects to views and their role in the dialogue. These types are represented by specific graphical symbols which support the designer in getting a clear overview of the navigation structure and for optimizing dialogues according to the user's task.