Adaptive hypertext and hypermedia : workshop : proceedings, 3rd, Sonthofen, Germany, July 14, 2001 and Aarhus, Denmark, August 15, 2001

This paper presents two empirical usability studies based on techniques from Human-Computer Interaction (HeI) and software engineering, which were used to elicit requirements for the design of a hypertext generation system. Here we will discuss the findings of these studies, which were used to motivate the choice of adaptivity techniques. The results showed dependencies between different ways to adapt the explanation content and the document length and formatting. Therefore, the system's architecture had to be modified to cope with this requirement. In addition, the system had to be made adaptable, in addition to being adaptive, in order to satisfy the elicited users' preferences

Adaptive hypertext and hypermedia : workshop : proceedings, 3rd, Sonthofen, Germany, July 14, 2001 and Aarhus, Denmark, August 15, 2001

This paper presents two empirical usability studies based on techniques from Human-Computer Interaction (HeI) and software engineering, which were used to elicit requirements for the design of a hypertext generation system. Here we will discuss the findings of these studies, which were used to motivate the choice of adaptivity techniques. The results showed dependencies between different ways to adapt the explanation content and the document length and formatting. Therefore, the system's architecture had to be modified to cope with this requirement. In addition, the system had to be made adaptable, in addition to being adaptive, in order to satisfy the elicited users' preferences

Cloud computing and context-awareness: A study of the adapted user experience

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Today, mobile technology is part of everyday life and activities and the mobile ecosystems are blossoming, with smartphones and tablets being the major growth drivers. The mobile phones are no longer just another device, we rely on their capabilities in work and in private. We look to our mobile phones for timely and updated information and we rely on this being provided any time of any day at any place. Nevertheless, no matter how much you trust and love your mobile phone the quality of the information and the user experience is directly associated with the sources and presentation of information. In this perspective, our activities, interactions and preferences help shape the quality of service, content and products we use. Context-aware systems use such information about end-users as input mechanisms for producing applications based on mobile, location, social, cloud and customized content services. This represents new possibilities for extracting aggregated user-centric information and includes novel sources for context-aware applications. Accordingly, a Design Research based approach has been taken to further investigate the creation, presentation and tailoring of user-centric information. Through user evaluated experiments findings show how multi-dimensional context-aware information can be used to create adaptive solutions tailoring the user experience to the users’ needs. Research findings in this work; highlight possible architectures for integration of cloud computing services in a heterogeneous mobile environment in future context-aware solutions. When it comes to combining context-aware results from local computations with those of cloud based services, the results provide findings that give users tailored and adapted experiences based on the collective efforts of the two

Social music in cars

This paper builds an understanding of how music is currently experienced by a social group travelling together in a car - how songs are chosen for playing, how music both reflects and influences the group’s mood and social interaction, who supplies the music, the hardware/software that supports song selection and presentation. This fine-grained context emerges from a qualitative analysis of a rich set of ethnographic data (participant observations and interviews) focusing primarily on the experience of in-car music on moderate length and long trips. We suggest features and functionality for music software to enhance the social experience when travelling in cars, and prototype and test a user interface based on design suggestions drawn from the data

Integration of accessibility requirements in the design of multimedia user agents interfaces

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorThe continuous increase of multimedia content in the Web, especially video content, is not accompanied by a similar increase of accessibility; there is a lack of synchronized alternatives for the content such as captions, audio description, etc. that allow anyone with or without disability to access such content. This lack of accessibility in video content access is not only due to the lack of alternatives, but also because of the fact that user agents which deliver this content do not provide the necessary means to present them. This fact leads to the noncompliance of the current regulations and legislation in terms of accessibility. This noncompliance could be due to the lack of knowledge, or because of the fact that applying these regulations from an engineering point of view is not trivial. There is a lack of authoring tools and methodological approaches which assist in the development of an accessible product in the Engineering scope as it is the case of the development of a quality user agent which includes accessibility requirements. All these facts, multimedia content’s progressive increase on the Web, accessibility barriers both in the content and in the user agent together with current regulations and legislation regarding accessibility is what has motivated the accomplishment of this Doctoral Thesis. With this Doctoral Thesis, a set of accessibility requirements that a user agent which delivers multimedia content must fulfil is provided. Besides, a workspace is provided following a methodological approach which assists in the design and development of the interface of an accessible user agent which delivers accessible multimedia content. This workspace is composed of an architecture and models following a Model-Based User Interface Development (MBUID) approach and is oriented to be used by designers with knowledge in modeling. Finally, as a support to any professional regardless of their knowledge in modeling and in accessibility, an authoring tool based on models is offered in order to create user agents with accessibility requirements.El continuo incremento del contenido multimedia en la Web, especialmente del contenido vídeo, no va acompañado de un incremento similar de accesibilidad, hay una falta de alternativas sincronizadas al contenido como subtitulado, audiodescripción, etc., que permitan acceder a cualquier persona con y sin discapacidad a dicho contenido. Esta falta de accesibilidad en el acceso al contenido vídeo no solo se debe a la ausencia de alternativas, también es debido a que los agentes de usuario que entregan dicho contenido no proporcionan los medios necesarios para presentarlas. Este hecho da lugar a que no se cumpla la normativa y la legislación vigente en materia de accesibilidad. Dicho incumplimiento, puede ser debido al desconocimiento, o a que aplicar esa normativa desde el punto de vista de la ingeniería no es trivial. Hay una falta de herramientas de autor y de enfoques metodológicos que asistan en el desarrollo de un producto accesible en el ámbito de la Ingeniería, como es el caso del desarrollo de un agente de usuario con calidad que incluya requisitos de accesibilidad. Todos estos hechos, el incremento progresivo del contenido multimedia en la Web, las barreras de accesibilidad tanto en el contenido como en el agente de usuario junto con la normativa y legislación vigente en materia de accesibilidad es lo que ha motivado la realización de esta Tesis Doctoral. Con esta Tesis Doctoral se proporciona el conjunto de requisitos de accesibilidad que debe cumplir un agente de usuario que sirva contenido multimedia accesible. Además se proporciona un espacio de trabajo siguiendo un enfoque metodológico que asista en el diseño y desarrollo de la interfaz de un agente de usuario accesible que sirve contenido multimedia accesible. Este espacio de trabajo está compuesto de una arquitectura y modelos siguiendo el enfoque de Model-Based User Interface Development (MBUID) y está orientado a ser utilizado por diseñadores con conocimientos en modelado. Por último, como recurso de ayuda a cualquier profesional, independientemente de sus conocimientos en modelado y accesibilidad, se ofrece una herramienta de autor basada en modelos para crear agentes de usuario con requisitos de accesibilidad.Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Ciencia y Tecnología InformáticaPresidente: José Antonio Macías Iglesias.- Vocal: Hugo Alexandre Paredes Guede

Web Tracking: Mechanisms, Implications, and Defenses

This articles surveys the existing literature on the methods currently used by web services to track the user online as well as their purposes, implications, and possible user's defenses. A significant majority of reviewed articles and web resources are from years 2012-2014. Privacy seems to be the Achilles' heel of today's web. Web services make continuous efforts to obtain as much information as they can about the things we search, the sites we visit, the people with who we contact, and the products we buy. Tracking is usually performed for commercial purposes. We present 5 main groups of methods used for user tracking, which are based on sessions, client storage, client cache, fingerprinting, or yet other approaches. A special focus is placed on mechanisms that use web caches, operational caches, and fingerprinting, as they are usually very rich in terms of using various creative methodologies. We also show how the users can be identified on the web and associated with their real names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, or even street addresses. We show why tracking is being used and its possible implications for the users (price discrimination, assessing financial credibility, determining insurance coverage, government surveillance, and identity theft). For each of the tracking methods, we present possible defenses. Apart from describing the methods and tools used for keeping the personal data away from being tracked, we also present several tools that were used for research purposes - their main goal is to discover how and by which entity the users are being tracked on their desktop computers or smartphones, provide this information to the users, and visualize it in an accessible and easy to follow way. Finally, we present the currently proposed future approaches to track the user and show that they can potentially pose significant threats to the users' privacy.Comment: 29 pages, 212 reference

Engineering Adaptive Model-Driven User Interfaces for Enterprise Applications

Enterprise applications such as enterprise resource planning systems have numerous complex user interfaces (UIs). Usability problems plague these UIs because they are offered as a generic off-the-shelf solution to end-users with diverse needs in terms of their required features and layout preferences. Adaptive UIs can help in improving usability by tailoring the features and layout based on the context-of-use. The model-driven UI development approach offers the possibility of applying different types of adaptations on the various UI levels of abstraction. This approach forms the basis for many works researching the development of adaptive UIs. Yet, several gaps were identified in the state-of-the-art adaptive model-driven UI development systems. To fill these gaps, this thesis presents an approach that offers the following novel contributions: - The Cedar Architecture serves as a reference for developing adaptive model-driven enterprise application user interfaces. - Role-Based User Interface Simplification (RBUIS) is a mechanism for improving usability through adaptive behavior, by providing end-users with a minimal feature-set and an optimal layout based on the context-of-use. - Cedar Studio is an integrated development environment, which provides tool support for building adaptive model-driven enterprise application UIs using RBUIS based on the Cedar Architecture. The contributions were evaluated from the technical and human perspectives. Several metrics were established and applied to measure the technical characteristics of the proposed approach after integrating it into an open-source enterprise application. Additional insights about the approach were obtained through the opinions of industry experts and data from real-life projects. Usability studies showed the approach’s ability to significantly improve usability in terms of end-user efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction

Facilitating Extended Reality in Museums through a Web-Based Application

Masteroppgave i Programvareutvikling samarbeid med HVLPROG399MAMN-PRO