A state of art survey on zz-structures

Zz-structures are particular data structures capable of representing both hypertextual information and contextual interconnections among different information. The focus of this paper is to stimulate new research on this topic, by providing, in a state of the art survey, a short description and comparison of all the material that, to the best of our knowledge, is related to zz-structures: informal and formal descriptions, implementations, languages, demonstrations, projects and applitudes of zz-structures; in fact, despite their large use in different fields, the literature lacks of an exhaustive and up-to-date description of them

Modelling Volo, an Augmentative and Alternative Communication application.

In this paper, we present a formal representation of an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) application, called Volo, for users with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). We discuss existing AAC applications and present a formal visualisation model of Volo based on zz-structures, hyper-orthogonal, non-hierarchical structures for storing, linking and manipulating data. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that tries to give a formal model to AAC techniques. We finally present the prototype of this new Volo application

AppInventory: a Visual Catalogue of Web 2.0 and Mobile Applications for Supporting Teaching and Learning Activities.

The availability of hundreds of Web 2.0 and mobile applications represent a great opportunity in helping teachers adopt student centred methodologies. These applications support users in creating and sharing digital artefacts, in aggregating, remixing and collecting heterogeneous materials and in communicating within working groups. When incorporated into daily teaching and learning activities (TLA), such applications can improve the collaborative, cognitive and creative work of the students, enhancing and redefining traditional educational practices. Nevertheless, although these applications are generally easy to find and use, there is a lack of knowledge about their existence, their functions and their potential in an educational setting. In this paper we describe AppInventory, a novel platform which contains a digital catalogue of applications: they are organized by applying an original taxonomy; the users can browse among them benefiting from a visual approach and semantic connections modelled using zz-structures

Modelling Volo, an Augmentative and Alternative Communication application

In this paper, we present a formal representation of an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) application, called Volo, for users with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). We discuss existing AAC applications and present a formal visualisation model of Volo based on zz-structures, hyper-orthogonal, non-hierarchical structures for storing, linking and manipulating data. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that tries to give a formal model to AAC techniques. We finally present the prototype of this new Volo application

A formal description of zz-structures

The focus of this paper is on particular and innovative structures for storing, linking and manipulating information: The zz-structures. In the last years, we worked at the formalization of these structures, retaining that the description of the formal aspects can provide a better understanding of them, and can also stimulate new ideas, projects and research. This work presents our contribution for a deeper discussion on zz-structures

VisualBib: A novel Web app for supporting researchers in the creation, visualization and sharing of bibliographies

In this paper, we present VisualBib, a Web application, which allows users to create, visualize, modify, explore, and share bibliographies and the related citation networks, using innovative diagrams, called narrative views. The metadata are retrieved in real-time from four existing bibliographic indexes, Scopus, OpenCitations, and CrossRef/Orcid. Bibliographies and views are formally described and modeled using zz-structures, a semantic, not-hierarchical data model. VisualBib has been evaluated through two evaluation studies, one focused on the quantitative side and another on the qualitative side. Taking into account both studies, they evaluate the tool regarding the effectiveness performing tasks, usability, graphic layout and other questions specific to the VisualBib features. The evaluation throws positive significant results in all areas when compared to Scopus searching features

A Catalog of Web App for Smart Teaching

AppInventory is a Web platform, which proposes a holistic view on a digital catalog of 271 applications, an innovative visual layout, and semantic browsing structures; the applications have been organized in an original taxonomy and can support users in creating and sharing digital artifacts, aggregating, remixing and collecting heterogeneous materials and communicating within working groups

Accessible and usable websites and mobile applications for people with autism spectrum disorders: A comparative study

Accessibility, usability and inclusion represent desirable challenges of current research in the field of universal design: in some cases, these features require adaptive behaviours and specialised customisations, while, in general, it is possible to identify common and hareable guidelines. We focus our attention on hildren with autism spectrum disorders. Many studies show the positive impact of using computer technologies for supporting the lives of these users. Despite that, just a restricted part of the current websites and apps is accessible and usable for people with ASD. In this paper, we present general and shared guidelines and best practices for accessibility and usability for all; and we propose specialised guidelines for designers and developers of websites and mobile applications for users with ASD. We then present a review of many of the existing websites and applications, in order to check which comply with all, or parts of these guidelines

VisualBib(va): A Visual Analytics Platform for Authoring and Reviewing Bibliographies

Researchers are daily engaged in bibliographic tasks concerning literature search and review, both in the role of authors of scientific papers and when they are reviewers or evaluators. Current indexing platforms poorly support the visual exploration and comparative metadata analysis coming from subsequent searches. To address these issues, we designed and realized VisualBib(va), an online visual analytics solution, where a visual environment includes analysis control, bibliography exploration, automatic metadata extraction, and metrics visualization for real-time scenarios. We introduce and discuss here the relevant functions that VisualBib(va) supports through one usage scenarios related to the creation of a bibliography