Internet of Things (IoT) has become prevalent in recent years. IoT works as a gigantic network in which the vast set of devices are integrated and interconnected. These devices include sensors, gateways and other smart objects. Accordingly, plenty of data models are produced to define and describe IoT devices by various organizations and manufacturers. Those data models significantly help in device management. However, it seems that the sharing and presenting of data models is not so effective. For a variety of organizations have different standardized ways exist to manage and present data models. Particularly, one device may have multiple data models. They are generated as diverse data formats of defining a device and distributed in different platforms. Consequently, to facilitate developers and enterprises’ work with data models, existing practices of data model management still need to be upgraded.
This master’s thesis proposes a user interface design solution for a meta model repository for IoT devices. Based on the exploration of various collaboration platforms, it analyses the selected platform with its aspects that make it easy to share the models while allow collaboration. Additionally, the study includes the research work on exploring current state of data models. The analysis of different collaboration platforms is also reported. Throughout the design process, user-centered design (UCD) methodology was applied to help create a usable repository in terms of both its user interface and its functionality. In this regard, two rounds of usability testing (6 and 7 participants, respectively) were conducted, which aimed to collect insights and requirements from users. The relevant results are presented and discussed.
The outcome of this thesis is a functional meta model repository which has been designed iteratively during user tests. It starts with support of Lightweight machine to machine (LWM2M) data models. With more data models appear, the repository will be more valuable and significant. More importantly, the repository can be extended to machine to machine communication in future. Therefore, the result of this thesis also demonstrates perceptions about the possibilities of the repository in future use
