A methodology and tool set for building application (assumed to be inherently non‐graphical) software with graphical user interface is described. Initially, pure application software is built from a set of basic building blocks; subsequently, graphical representations for application objects are defined without direct coding and then the graphical user interface is generated automatically. This paper concentrates on the graphical representation aspects of the user interface. Portability, configurability and sound software engineering principles are major considerations in the design of the overall system architecture. The prototype implementation is based on VDM (Vienna Development Method), Object‐based Design, GKS (Graphical Kernel System) and the programming language ADA. An example from CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) is used to illustrate the methodology presented h