Models and Patterns for the Specification of Context of Use

Interactive systems have to be designed in a more flexible way to better cope with different contexts of use. We follow the idea of model-based approaches, which foster a systematic task-oriented design process but suggest some improvements. We argue that a stronger coupling of sub-models in use allows a more expressive specification of context-sensitivity. Such a coupling is supported by a general specification mechanism, which we propose. It combines behavioral and state descriptions. We further argue that appropriate description mechanisms for submodels are not sufficient to support a model-based approach. We illustrate that patterns can guide the mutual development of the sub-models in use.