A Hypertext Database for User Interface Design Decisions

Members of the User Interface and Quality Planning Department at AT&T Bell Laboratories design graphical user interfaces for a number of network management systems being developed by AT&T. In the course of this design work, we have seen the need to communicate design decisions and their underlying rationale across projects to achieve the goals of commonality and reuse of designs. We have developed a tool, called the User Interface Design Database (UIDD), for use in documenting, tracking, and communicating user interface design decisions within individual projects and across multiple projects.