An EUD Approach for Making MBUI Practical

Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Making model-based user interface design practical: usable and open methods and tools. Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, January.13, 2004Also published online by CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org, ISSN 1613-0073)In this paper, we present our perspective on Model-Based User Interfaces (hereafter MBUI) paradigm and provide with our experience in this area combining high-level knowledge-based data models (i.e. ontologies) and reverse engineering processes to carry through a pragmatic MBUI vision. Our approach is based on using End-User Development (hereafter EUD) techniques (i.e. Programming by Example) to enable the user to carry out editing tasks in a MBUI environment. This advocates an EUD-for-MBUI approach, where the system avoids the user from having to deal with interface specification languages.The work reported in this paper is being supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (MCyT), project number TIC2002-194

Semantic monitoring techniques for EUD

This is an electronic version of the paper presented at the Workshop on End User Modeling at the ACM International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2003), held in Florida on 2003In this work, we present how domain modeling and Programming by Example techniques can be combined to carry through a EUD approach. Our techniques are based on detecting iteration patterns from user monitoring as well as extracting knowledge about the user interface itself. Combining those, dynamic behavior can be characterized, getting maximum amount of semantic at each user step. This approach can be used in order to make PBE inference process more effective as well as to result in enhancing PBE global efficiency.The work reported in this paper is being supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (MCyT), project number TIC2002-1948

Providing end-user facilities to simplify ontology-driven web application authoring

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Interacting with Computers. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Interacting with Computers, Interacting with Computers 17, 4 (2007) DOI: 10.1016/j.intcom.2007.01.006Generally speaking, emerging web-based technologies are mostly intended for professional developers. They pay poor attention to users who have no programming abilities but need to customize software applications. At some point, such needs force end-users to act as designers in various aspects of software authoring and development. Every day, more new computing-related professionals attempt to create and modify existing applications in order to customize web-based artifacts that will help them carry out their daily tasks. In general they are domain experts rather than skilled software designers, and new authoring mechanisms are needed in order that they can accomplish their tasks properly. The work we present is an effort to supply end-users with easy mechanisms for authoring web-based applications. To complement this effort, we present a user study showing that it is possible to carry out a trade-off between expressiveness and ease of use in order to provide end-users with authoring facilities.The work reported in this paper is being partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (MCyT), projects TIN2005-06885 and TSI2005-08225-C07-06

Finding iteration patterns in dynamic Web page authoring

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/11431879_10Revised Selected Papers of the Joint Working Conferences EHCI-DSVIS 2004, Hamburg, Germany, July 11-13, 2004Most of the current WWW is made up of dynamic pages. The development of dynamic pages is a difficult and costly endeavour, out-of-reach for most users, experts, and content producers. We have developed a set of techniques to support the edition of dynamic web pages in a WYSIWYG environment. In this paper we focus on specific techniques for inferring changes to page generation procedures from users actions on examples of the pages generated by these procedures. More specifically, we propose techniques for detecting iteration patterns in users’ behavior in web page editing tasks involving page structures like lists, tables and other iterative HTML constructs. Such patterns are used in our authoring tool, DESK, where a specialized assistant, DESK-A, detects iteration patterns and generates, using Programming by Example, a programmatic representation of the user’s actions. Iteration patterns help obtain a more detailed characterization of users’ intent, based on user monitoring techniques, that is put in relation to application knowledge automatically extracted by our system from HTML pages. DESK-A relieves end-users from having to learn programming and specification languages for editing dynamic-generated web pages.The work reported in this paper is being supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (MCyT), project number TIC2002-194

ICWE 2016 rapid mashup challenge: Introduction

The ICWE 2016 Rapid Mashup Challenge is the second installment of a series of challenges that aim to engage researchers and practitioners in showcasing and discussing their work on assisting mashup development. This introduction provides the reader with the general context of the Challenge, its objectives and motivation, and the requirements contributions were asked to satisfy so as to be eligible for participation. A summary of the contributions that were selected for presentation in the 2016 edition anticipates the content of the remainder of this volume

Intelligent assistance in authoring dynamically generated Web interfaces

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11280-008-0043-3Since its emergence in the early 1990s, the WWW has become not only an information system of unprecedented size, but a universal platform for the development of services and applications. However, most of the advances in web technologies are intended for professional developers, paying poor attention to end-users with no programming abilities but with explicit needs of creating and customizing web-based presentations. This provides a strong motivation for end-users to act as designers at some point, leading to an emerging role of new computing-related professionals to be considered. This paper is an effort to leverage such difficulties by providing intelligent mechanism to assist end-users in web-based authoring tasks. To carry out such a challenge, intelligent user-monitoring techniques are exploited to obtain high-level information that will be used to infer the user’s preferences and assist him throughout the interaction. Furthermore, we report on how iteration patterns can be applied to avoid repetitive tasks that are automatically carried out on behalf of the user. In order to bring off a feasible trade-off between expressivity and ease of use, a user experiment to obtain the user’s perception and evaluate the hit-rate of our system is also presented.The work reported in this paper is being partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (MCyT), project number TSI2005-08225-C07-0

Presentation of XML content using WYSIWYG templates

XML has gained worldwide popularity for its ability to represent very general structured content. It is a platform independent format that has been successfully used for both media and more traditional textual data. However, the presentation of XML content has been an area of research ever since its introduction. We discuss the state of the art in XML content presentation, and then describe a new method for user designed transformation using WYSIWYG templates in HTML, that will allow users to design their own XML presentation format

A NPC Behaviour Definition System for Use by Programmers and Designers

In this paper we describe ZBL/0, a scripting system for defining NPC (Non Player Character) behaviour in FPS (First Person Shooter) games. ZBL/0 has been used to illustrate the use of scripting systems in computer games in general and the scripting of NPC behaviour in particular in the context of a book on game development. Many novice game designers have clear ideas about how the computer game they imagine should work but have little knowledge – if any – about how their ideas can be implemented. This is why books on game creation (design, programming etc.), as well as all-in-one game creation systems – especially designed for ease of use and intended for an amateur audience – enjoy great popularity. A large proportion of these books however merely present solutions in the form of descriptions and explanations of specific implementations with inadequate explanations of principles. While this may benefit rapid application development it often does not lead to a deeper understanding of the underlying concepts. The understanding of rule-based behaviour definition through simple scripting in computer games and the development of such scripts by programmers and designers is what we aim to address with the ZBL/0 system