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[this is a copy of my question on SO https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2200215/user-interface-functionality-modelling-languages but it fits better here]

I am looking for a UI functionality modelling language (UML-alike "thing", but for user interfaces) that is already accepted and maybe has its design patterns and handles the problem better than state or activity diagram.

(If there is no such thing I'm planning to develop one)

This question came to mind as a result of a discovery that UML and its diagrams fail at describing complicated UI functionality with event-driven flow of execution (ie. javascript/jQuery big projects)

Clarification: It's functionality modelling (possible user interaction, events etc.), so it's not about where I put a button. It's about objects that have some events binded, and the interface behaviour logic.

I've been thinking of using BPMN but It was not created for this purpose.

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Jakub Linowski's Interactive Sketching Notation might be what you're looking for. Its most recent version is 0.1, so clearly it could use some more development, but I'm sure Jakub would love for someone to take it and grow it to version 1.0 :-)

Here's what it looks like:

alt text

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  • Let me know if this image is too big... not sure what the guidelines are for them
    – Rahul
    Commented Aug 19, 2010 at 12:46
  • The image is scaled and a bit hard to read, but it's important that it remains here. Looks nice for modelling the behaviour of basic controls. Only thing it lacks is analogy to UML etc. It doesn't define controls as objects communicationg with each other. It's more descriptive. Nontheless - usefull stuff. I'll see into it.
    – naugtur
    Commented Aug 23, 2010 at 10:31
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I did my M.Sc. thesis on a tool called the "Play-Engine".

The Play-Engine is a scenario based modeling tool and it's powered by a language called Live Sequence Charts (LSC), which is an enhanced version of UML's Message Sequence Charts.

LSC is a powerful and rich language that can express practically anything, so it can definitely fit here. There are some demos on the site. If you think it's worth while exploring, I'll try to get you a copy of the latest version. The language itself though is compete and well defined.

Let me know if I can help.

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