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

A Model-Based Approach for Gesture Interfaces

The description of a gesture requires temporal analysis of values generated by input sensors, and it does not fit well the observer pattern traditionally used by frameworks to handle the user’s input. The current solution is to embed particular gesture-based interactions into frameworks by notifying when a gesture is detected completely. This approach suffers from a lack of flexibility, unless the programmer performs explicit temporal analysis of raw sensors data. This thesis proposes a compositional, declarative meta-model for gestures definition based on Petri Nets. Basic traits are used as building blocks for defining gestures; each one notifies the change of a feature value. A complex gesture is defined by the composition of other sub-gestures using a set of operators. The user interface behaviour can be associated to the recognition of the whole gesture or to any other sub-component, addressing the problem of granularity for the notification of events. The meta-model can be instantiated for different gesture recognition supports and its definition has been validated through a proof of concept library. Sample applications have been developed for supporting multi-touch gestures in iOS and full body gestures with Microsoft Kinect. In addition to the solution for the event granularity problem, this thesis discusses how to separate the definition of the gesture from the user interface behaviour using the proposed compositional approach. The gesture description meta-model has been integrated into MARIA, a model-based user interface description language, extending it with the description of full-body gesture interfaces

Development of context-sensitive user interfaces

Dobro dizajniran, intuitivan i privlačan za korišćenje korisnički interfejs predstavlja ključni faktor uspeha računarskih proizvoda i sistema. Radi unapređenja razvoja i upotrebljivosti korisničkih interfejsa potrebno je uzeti u obzir karakteristike korisnika. Ovo zahteva interdisciplinaran pristup i korišćenje znanja iz različitih oblasti kao što su računarske, saznajne i biološke nauke. Pored toga, potrebno je uzeti u obzir karakteristike medija i fizičkog okruženja u kojem se odvija interakcija čoveka i računara. Razvoj korisničkog interfejsa treba da uvaži i karakteristike hardverskih uređaja koji se koriste u komunikaciji sa korisnikom, dostupne softverske resurse, kao i karakteristike programskih sistema koji treba da koriste korisnički interfejs. U skladu sa tim, uvodi se pojam kontekstno-osetljivog interfejsa koji se definiše kao korisnički interfejs koji je prilagodljiv kontekstu interakcije sa konkretnim korisnikom. Kontekst interakcije čine tri klase entiteta: korisnik računarskog sistema (čovek); hardverska i softverska platforma pomoću kojih korisnici interaguju sa sistemom i fizičko okruženje u kojem se odigrava interakcija sa sistemom. Posmatrajući evoluciju razvoja softvera uočavamo povećanje nivoa apstrakcije na kojem se softver opisuje. Dostignuti nivo razvoja omogućava platformski nezavisnu specifikaciju softvera koja se postepeno ili automatizovano prevodi u izvršne aplikacije za različite softverske i hardverske platforme. Arhitektura upravljana modelima, koja se koristi za razvoj složenih programskih rešenja, hijerarhijski organizuje koncepte i modele u više nivoa apstrakcije. Ovo je posebno bitno imajući u vidu da je razvoj kontekstno-osetljivih korisničkih interfejsa složen proces koji uključuje modelovanje velikog broja elemenata na različitim nivoima apstrakcije. U ovoj tezi smo istraživali problem unapređenja razvoja kontekstno-osetljivih korisničkih interfejsa. Predloženo je rešenje koje omogućava automatizaciju razvoja korisničkog interfejsa prilagođenog kontekstu interakcije čoveka i računara. Rešenje se ogleda u proširenju jezika za modelovanje, standardnog procesa razvoja softverskih sistema (Unified proces) i razvojnih alata elementima specifičnim za interakciju čoveka i računara. U skladu sa prethodnim, razvijen je model kontekstno-osetljive interakcije čoveka i računara i predloženi su modeli korisničkih interfejsa na različitim nivoima apstrakcije. Zbog standardizacije, široke prihvaćenosti, i dostupnosti razvojnih alata, odlučili smo se za proširenje UML (Unified Modeling Language) jezika za modelovanje i ATL (Atlas Transformation Language) jezika za transformacije modela. Primena predloženog pristupa je demonstrirana na primerima dve studije slučaja iz različitih domena...Well-designed, intuitive and catchy-to-use user interface represents key issue of success of computer products and systems. In order to improve development and usability of user interfaces it is needed to take into account user’s charasteristics. This entails interdisciplinary approach and use of knowledge from different fields such as computing, cognitive and biological sciences. In addition, it is needed to consider features of the physical environment and the medium in which interaction between human and computer takes place. Development of user interface must include characteristics of hardware devices employed in interaction with the user, availabale software resources, as well as characteristics of software systems using the interface. According to stated, concept of context-sensitive user interface is introduced, defined as a user interface adaptable to context of interaction with concrete user. Context of interaction is decomposed into three classes of entitites: user of a computer system (human); hardware and software platforms by which users interact with the system and physical environment in which interaction with system happens. Looking at the evolution of software development, we can notice that the abstraction level on which software is described is increasing all the time. The latest trend is to specify software using platform-independent models, which are then gradually and (semi-) automatically transformed into executable applications for different platforms and target devices. Modeldriven architecture, used for development of complex software solutions, hierarchically organizes concepts and models into multiple abstraction levels. This is especially important regarding development of context-sensitive user interfaces which appears to be a complex process involved with modeling of a large number of elements on different abstraction levels. In this thesis, we have been exploring problem concerned with the improvement of development of context-sensitive user interfaces. Solution enabling automation of development of user interface adaptable to context of interaction between human and computer is proposed. Solution includes extensions of modelling language, standard software development process (Unified process) and development tools with the elements specific for human-computer interaction. Based on previous, model of context-sensitive human-computer interaction has been developed and user interface models on different abstraction levels have been proposed. For reasons of standardization, wide acceptance and availability of development tools, we have decided to extend UML (Unified Modeling Language) modeling language and ATL (Atlas Transformation Language) language for model transformations. Application of the proposed approach is demonstrated with examples of two case studies from different domains..