General Interface Description of Websites using CLICK and UIML

This paper explores the domain of programming paradigm for Multi-Platform User Interfaces using XML based languages. The main focus of this work is User Interface Markup Language (UIML), an XML based language for describing user interfaces in a platform-independent manner. We have explored the capabilities of UIML as an interface description language for describing interactive websites. We have selected an end-user web programming tool called CLICK, which also uses an XML based interface description for the websites created through it. We have analyzed both the representations and devised a conversion process from CLICK XML to UIML. We have found that UIML is expressive enough to represent applications built using CLICK. UIML provides various benefits over the interface description generated by CLICK especially that of facilitating the development of web based interfaces for multiple platforms through CLICK

Semi-automated creation of converged iTV services: From macromedia director simulations to services ready for broadcast

While sound and video may capture viewers’ attention, interaction can captivate them. This has not been available prior to the advent of Digital Television. In fact, what lies at the heart of the Digital Television revolution is this new type of interactive content, offered in the form of interactive Television (iTV) services. On top of that, the new world of converged networks has created a demand for a new type of converged services on a range of mobile terminals (Tablet PCs, PDAs and mobile phones). This paper aims at presenting a new approach to service creation that allows for the semi-automatic translation of simulations and rapid prototypes created in the accessible desktop multimedia authoring package Macromedia Director into services ready for broadcast. This is achieved by a series of tools that de-skill and speed-up the process of creating digital TV user interfaces (UI) and applications for mobile terminals. The benefits of rapid prototyping are essential for the production of these new types of services, and are therefore discussed in the first section of this paper. In the following sections, an overview of the operation of content, service, creation and management sub-systems is presented, which illustrates why these tools compose an important and integral part of a system responsible of creating, delivering and managing converged broadcast and telecommunications services. The next section examines a number of metadata languages candidates for describing the iTV services user interface and the schema language adopted in this project. A detailed description of the operation of the two tools is provided to offer an insight of how they can be used to de-skill and speed-up the process of creating digital TV user interfaces and applications for mobile terminals. Finally, representative broadcast oriented and telecommunication oriented converged service components are also introduced, demonstrating how these tools have been used to generate different types of services

An Adaptive User Interface Framework for eHealth Services based on UIML

New sensory technologies and smaller, more capable mobile devices open opportunities for pervasive computing in the healthcare sector. Patients as well as medical professionals are, from a information and communication technology (ICT) point of view, better equipped than ever before. Despite this, many hospitals and other healthcare service providers have yet to exploit the potential unleashed by these technologies. In this paper, we present a framework for adaptive user interfaces for home care and smart hospital services. The framework uses the current context to provide healthcare professionals or patients with simpler, more efficient user interfaces. In a home care environment, user interface adaption is needed to tailor user interfaces to patients needs and impairments. In a smart hospital, user interface adaption considers medical professionals’ preferences and priorities. In addition, by using context to make input suggestions simplifies the input and limits the scope for errors. Our frameworks uses a modelbased approach and includes the current context in the interface generation process

User Interface Abstraction for enabling TV set based Inclusive Access to the Information Society

199 p.The television (TV) set is present in most homes worldwide, and is the most used Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Despite its large implantation in the market, the interactive services consumption on TV set is limited. This thesis focuses on overcoming the following limiting factors: (i) limited Human Computer Interaction and (ii) lack of considering user’s real life context in the digital television (dTV) service integration strategy. Making interactive services accessible to TV set’s large user base, and especially to the most vulnerable ones, is understood as the path to integrate the mankind with the information society. This thesis explores the use of user interface abstraction technologies to reach the introduced goals. The main contributions of this thesis are: (i) an approach to enable the universally accessible remote control of the TV set, (ii) an approach for the provision of universally accessible interactive services through TV sets, and (iii) an approach for the provision of universally accessible services in the TV user’s real life context. We have implemented the contributing approaches for different use cases, and we have evaluated them with real users, achieving good results

Rapid Modeling, Prototyping, and Generation of Digital Libraries- A Theory-Based Approach

Despite some development in the area of DL architectures and systems, there is still little support for the complete life cycle of DL development, including requirements gathering, conceptual modeling, rapid prototyping, and code generation and reuse. Even when partially supported, those activities are uncorrelated within the current systems, which can lead to inconsistencies and incompleteness. Moreover, the current few existing approaches are not supported by comprehensive and formal foundations and theories, which brings problems of interoperability and makes it extremely difficult to adapt and tailor systems to specific societal preferences and needs of the target community. In this paper, having the 5S formal theoretical framework as support, we present an architecture and a family of tools that allow rapid modeling, prototyping, and generation of digital libraries. 5S stands for Streams, Structures, Spaces, Scenarios, and Societies and is our formal theory for DLs. 5SL is a domain-specific, declarative language for DL conceptual modeling. 5SGraph is a visual modeling tool that helps designers to model a digital library without knowing the theoretical foundations and the syntactical details of 5SL. Furthermore, 5SGraph maintains semantic constraints specified by a 5S metamodel and enforces these constraints over the instance model to ensure semantic consistency and correctness. 5SGraph also enables component reuse to reduce the time and efforts of designers. 5SLGen is a DL generation tool that takes specifications in 5SL and a set of component pools and generates portions of a running DL system. The outputs of 5SLGen include user interface prototypes, in a generic UI markup language, for validation of services behavior and workflow representations of the running system, generated to support the desired scenarios

Dynamically generated multi-modal application interfaces

This work introduces a new UIMS (User Interface Management System), which aims to solve numerous problems in the field of user-interface development arising from hard-coded use of user interface toolkits. The presented solution is a concrete system architecture based on the abstract ARCH model consisting of an interface abstraction-layer, a dialog definition language called GIML (Generalized Interface Markup Language) and pluggable interface rendering modules. These components form an interface toolkit called GITK (Generalized Interface ToolKit). With the aid of GITK (Generalized Interface ToolKit) one can build an application, without explicitly creating a concrete end-user interface. At runtime GITK can create these interfaces as needed from the abstract specification and run them. Thereby GITK is equipping one application with many interfaces, even kinds of interfaces that did not exist when the application was written. It should be noted that this work will concentrate on providing the base infrastructure for adaptive/adaptable system, and does not aim to deliver a complete solution. This work shows that the proposed solution is a fundamental concept needed to create interfaces for everyone, which can be used everywhere and at any time. This text further discusses the impact of such technology for users and on the various aspects of software systems and their development. The targeted main audience of this work are software developers or people with strong interest in software development

Parametrinen mallintaminen nettisivujen suunnittelussa: Ratkaisu tehokkaaseen vaatimusmäärittelyyn ja nopeaan kehittämiseen

This thesis addresses two challenges in website design and software development in general. First, development of websites is slow and requires special knowledge. Second, successful requirements engineering is essential for success of the project, but specifying the requirements is often time-consuming. Parametric modelling has long been utilized in mechanical engineering, architecture and other 3D modelling, but not much in web design. This thesis brings the parametric modelling to the context of web development to find a new solution to support efficient requirements engineering and fast development of websites in the context of the case company. This thesis studies possible ways of describing websites as parametric models and parametrizing website requirements, and the role of a parametric model of a website in supporting the requirements engineering process. Data about the requirements engineering process and the website requirements was collected with interviews and project document analysis. Based on the research results and literature, a parametric model of a website was developed. The research results and the parametric model created show, that parametric modelling is a great tool also for website design. Parametric model enables fast prototyping of the website. Prototypes in requirements engineering facilitate better communication and mutual understanding, which are crucial for successful requirements engineering. The parametric model also structures the requirements engineering process and supports iterative specification of requirements. Parametric model simplifies the website development, and changes to the website can be made fast to meet the customer’s changing requirements.Tämä diplomityö keskittyy kahteen verkkosivustojen suunnittelun ja ohjelmistokehityksen haasteeseen. Ensiksi, verkkosivujen kehittäminen on hidasta ja vaatii erityisosaamista. Toiseksi, onnistunut vaatimusmäärittely on perusehto koko projektin onnistumiselle, mutta on usein aikaa vievää. Parametrista mallintamista on pitkään hyödynnetty konesuunnittelussa, arkkitehtuurissa ja muussa 3D-mallintamisessa, mutta ei juurikaan web-suunnittelussa. Tämä työ soveltaa parametrista mallinnusta web-kehityksessä sekä pyrkii löytämään ratkaisun, joka tukee tehokasta vaatimusmäärittelyä ja nopeaa verkkosivujen toteuttamista kohdeyrityksen kontekstissa. Tämä työ tutkii mahdollisia tapoja kuvata verkkosivustoja parametrisina malleina, verkkosivuston vaatimuksien parametrisointia sekä verkkosivuston parametrisen mallin roolia vaatimusmäärittelyprosessissa. Aineistoa vaatimusmäärittelyprosessista ja verkkosivustojen vaatimuksista kerättiin haastatteluiden avulla ja projektidokumentteja tutkimalla. Parametrinen malli verkkosivustosta kehitettiin tutkimustuloksiin ja kirjallisuuteen pohjautuen. Tutkimustulokset sekä toteutettu parametrinen malli osoittavat, että parametrinen mallintaminen on oiva työkalu myös verkkosivustojen suunnittelussa. Parametrinen malli mahdollistaa verkkosivuston nopean prototypoinnin, mikä tukee parempaa kommunikointia ja yhteisymmärrystä vaatimusmäärittelyssä, joka on erityisen tärkeää onnistuneen vaatimusmäärittelyn kannalta. Parametrinen malli myös jäsentää vaatimusmäärittelyprosessia ja tukee iteratiivistä vaatimusmäärittelyä. Parametrinen malli yksinkertaistaa verkkosivustojen toteutusta, ja mahdollistaa muutosten tekemisen nopeasti asiakkaiden vaatimusten muuttuessa