A multi-criteria procedure for the user interface components layout problem

The multi-criteria facilities layout problem can be formulated as a quadratic assignment model that can handle multiple qualitative and quantitative factors in the objective function. Some studies have shown that the techniques and tools of facilities layout problems can equally be applied for the layout design of user interface components in human-computer interface. This paper presents an alternate approach, which handles multiple qualitative and quantitative factors in a different manner separately in the objective function to obtain the initial layouts. The proposed approach also consists of a layout procedure, in which the pair of facilities with the least composite criterion value has been selected to be placed far apart in the layout to generate an initial layout in the construction procedure. The results of the proposed approach are compared with that of an existing approach which handles a number of qualitative and quantitative factors in the same manner as in the objective function to obtain the initial layouts for the example task of the user interface components layout problem under consideration.