GUIEvaluator: A Metric-tool for Evaluating the Complexity of Graphical User Interfaces.

Abstract

User interface design metrics assist developers to evaluate interface designs in early phase before delivering the software to end users. This paper presents a metric-based tool called GUIEvaluator for evaluating the complexity of the user interface based on its structure. We defined a metrics model that includes five modified structural measures of interface complexity: Alignment, grouping, size, density, and balance. The results of our tool are discussed in comparison with the subjective evaluations of interface layouts. This paper demonstrates the potential benefits of incorporating automated complexity metrics into the user interface design process. Our findings show that the means of the interface complexity values for both the subjective evaluation and the GUIEvaluator are equal at a significance level 0.01. Keywords-User Interface Design, GUI, Complexity Metrics, Screen Aesthetics, Usability, Automated Tools.