In the field of HCI there exist many formalisms for analysing, describ
ing and evaluating interactive systems. However, in developing and eva
luating user interfaces to databases, we found it necessary to be able
to describe presentation and interaction aspects that are catered for
poorly or not at all. in current formalisms. This paper presents a fr
amework for the systematic description of data model, presentation and
interaction components that together form a graphical user interface.
The utility of the framework is then demonstrated by showing how it c
an be used to describe two existing visual query interfaces. These exa
mples show that the framework provides a systematic method for the con
cise description of graphical interfaces to databases that can be used
either during interface design or as a communication aid. (C) 1998 Ac
ademic Press.