Co-Designing the 15-Minute City

This report relates to a project which explored the potential of a mixed-method approach of using Sensor monitoring and community planning techniques to co-design ideas of the 15-minute neighbourhood. The project, a collaboration between researchers at the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moore’s University used the neighbourhood of Toxteth, Liverpool as a base to explore how real time sensor-based monitoring would affect resident perceptions, understanding and support for active travel measures in the places that they lived, and thus could be used as a method to support place-based decarbonisation

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

A cross-device pattern-based approach for designing multiple user interfaces to information systems

Based on a comparative analysis of different user interface pattern catalogues, languages, and on the requirements elicited from it, this thesis defines a cross-device pattern as a pattern expecting to capture a general solution to a problem of designing multiple user interfaces of information systems for multiple contexts of use, particularly devices and platforms. A conceptual model of cross-device pattern is defined with its semantics expressed as a UML 2.0 class diagram and its syntax via User Interface Pattern Language Markup Language (UIPLML), a XML-compliant markup language for designing Multiple User Interfaces (MUIs) patterns for multiple contexts of use. To validate UIPLML, four pattern databases offering multi-faceted search have been created. A step-wise method for applying cross-device pattern is defined and applied on a running case study. Three frequently used design patterns, i.e., the Master-and-Details design pattern, the Population Interaction Unit and the Service Interaction Unit of the OO-Method, are then subject to a methodological instantiation. Various software prototypes (i.e., UsiMAD, PaDeRa) have been developed in order to investigate the impact of the method on designers who are responsible for designing multiple user interfaces based on cross-device patterns.(ECGE - Sciences économiques et de gestion) -- UCL, 201

A Pattern-based Approach to Support the Design of Multi-Platform User Interfaces of Information Systems

This PhD thesis is focused on a pattern approach for designing multi-platform user interfaces. The pattern approach is applied on the complete user interface (UI) development process. UI patterns can be used to improve the usability and cycle-life development. To achieve a good quality of software development, UI patterns related to ergonomic context can be used in unification of models to support the UI development process. UI Patterns of the OO-Method are introduced in the whole model driven process of UI in order to obtain different UIs in the Final User Interface (FUI) level including specific platforms. In using different patterns on other devices, the thesis analyses the derivation of up-to-date UIs with the application of the built ergonomic guide and extended patterns. A comparative study of these different FUIs built in different contexts is necessary to show how difficult it is to adapt the different patterns on variety platform

MoCaDiX : Designing Cross-Device User Interfaces of an Information System based on its Class Diagram

This paper presents MoCaDiX, a method for designing cross-device graphical user interfaces of an information system based on its UML class diagram, structured as a four-step process: (1) a UML class diagram of the information system is created in a model editor, (2) how the classes, attributes, methods, and relationships of this class diagram are presented across devices is then decided based on user interface patterns with their own parametrization, (3) based on these parameters, a Concrete User Interface model is generated in QuiXML, a lightweight fit-to-purpose User Interface Description Language, and (4) based on this model, HTML5 cross-device user interfaces are semi-automatically generated for four configurations: single/multiple device single/multiple-display on a smartphone, a tablet, and a desktop. From the practitioners' viewpoint, a first experiment investigates effectiveness, efficiency, and subjective satisfaction of three intermediate and three expert designers, using MoCaDiX on a representative class diagram. From the end user's viewpoint, a second experiment compares subjective satisfaction and preference of twenty end users assessing layout strategies for interfaces generated on two device

Generative Patterns for Cross-Platform User Interfaces: The Case of the Master-Detail Pattern

To become valuable, such design patterns should encode the structure of a solution and its associated forces, rather than cataloguing just a solution, often for a specific platform. We introduce the generative pattern as a way of both documenting and implementing the human–computer interaction (HCI) patterns. A generative pattern not only tells us the rules for implementing a user interface (UI) design is considered as a generic solution to a problem at different levels of abstraction (in the way that a UI could be modeled), but also shows us how to transform these expressions into programmable codes for the diverse computing platforms, while being compliant with the style guide rules that may prevail for these platforms. As a case study, the master-detail (M-D) pattern, one popular and frequently used HCI design pattern, is developed: this displays a master list of items and the details for any selected item. While this MD pattern is documented in very different, possibly inconsistent, ways across various computing platforms, the M-D generative pattern consolidates these particular implementations into a high-level pattern description based on design options that are independent of any platform, thus making this pattern “cross-platform.” A framework provides developers and designers with a high level UI process to implement this pattern in using different instances and its application in some designated languages. Some examples of applying an M-D generative pattern are explained as well as a particular implementation for the Android platform

Generative Patterns for Cross-Platform user Interfaces Engineering: The Case of the Master Detail Pattern

HCI design patterns have been recognized to be important mean for gathering and conveying UI designs that have been proved usable, useful, and sometimes enjoyable. To become valuable, such design patterns should encode the structure of a solution and its associated forces, rather than cataloguing just a solution, often for a specific platform. We introduce the generative pattern as a way of both documenting and implementing HCI patterns. A generative pattern not only tells us the rules for implementing a UI design considered as a generic solution to a problem at different levels of abstraction (in the way that a UI could be modelled), but also shows us how to transform these expressions into programmable code for the diverse computing platforms, while being compliant with the style guide rules that may prevail for these platforms. As a case study, the Master-Detail (M-D) pattern, one popular and frequently used HCI design pattern, is developed: displays a master list of items and the details for any selected item. While this MD pattern is documented in very different, possibly inconsistent, ways across various computing platforms, the MD generative pattern consolidate these particular implementations into a high-level pattern description based on design options that are independent of any platform, thus making this pattern ‘cross-platform’. A framework provide developers and designers with a high level UI process to implement this pattern in using different instances and its application in some designated languages. Some examples of applying a MD generative pattern are explained as well as a particular implementation for the Android platform

Generative Pattern as a Development Tool for Multi-User Experiences, Multi-devices and Multi-platforms Mobile

End users interacting with mobile services through a wide diversity of mobile devices and platforms inevitably endure various user experiences when no consistency is ensured across these devices and platforms. Developing the same service for heterogeneous devices remains a challenging task: how to ensure that the service will provide end users with the same level of user experience or at least a common minimum level of usability across software development and deployment platforms. This paper addresses this problem by introducing a generative design pattern-based approach for cross-device services: a design pattern captures frequent interactive behaviors at a higher level of abstraction than the code level, the selection of such a design pattern is then subject to parametrization so as to drive a code generation process. The pattern is not only considered descriptive, since it specifies a consistent user experience across devices, but also generative because it ensures some consistency across different devices and platforms since the pattern is instantiated in the same way for each device or platform. To exemplify this process, the master-details design pattern is detailed and illustrated on a case study for a car rental mobile service. A pilot study conducted with thirty-five participants suggests that this is a viable approach for quickly producing cross-devices services, with limited development effort, but also with limited variability

SketchADoodle: Touch-surface Multi-stroke Gesture Handling by Bézier Curves

Touch-surface multi-stroke gestures, as well as freehand drawings, are typically acquired by devices and sensors as a suite of timestamped points on a plane. This Cartesian coordinate system, although useful for computation like complexity analysis, gesture classification and recognition, becomes complex and inefficient when gestures need to be visualized and directly manipulated for editing. To address these challenges, a new mathematical representation of these gestures via a Bézier curve is defined to initiate a model-based approach for gesture direct manipulation (e.g., cut, copy, paste, translate, scale, rotate, deform, crop, compose, decompose). SketchADoodle, an Android-based mobile application for drawing, gesturing, demonstrates how the pseudo-code of the Bézier-based operations are engineered for real-time direct manipulation. We release the programming code for further development of gesture-based user interfaces based on Bézier curve

A pattern-based approach to support the design of multi-platform user interfaces of information systems

This PhD thesis is focused on a pattern approach for designing multi-platform user interfaces. The pattern approach is applied on the complete user interface (UI) development process. UI patterns can be used to improve the usability and cycle-life development. To achieve a good quality of software development, UI patterns related to ergonomic context can be used in unification of models to support the UI development process. UI Patterns of the OO-Method are introduced in the whole model driven process of UI in order to obtain different UIs in the Final User Interface (FUI) level including specific platforms. In using different patterns on other devices, the thesis analyses the derivation of up-to-date UIs with the application of the built ergonomic guide and extended patterns. A comparative study of these different FUIs built in different contexts is necessary to show how difficult it is to adapt the different patterns on variety platforms