Abstract not found

Model-based approaches can be useful when designing nomadic applications, which can be accessed through multiple interaction platforms. Various models and levels of abstraction can be considered in such approaches. The lack of automatic tool support has been the main limitation to their use. We present a tool, TERESA, supporting top-down transformations from task models to abstract user interfaces and then to user interfaces for different types of interaction platforms (such as mobile phones or desktop systems). It allows designers to keep a unitary view of the design of a given nomadic application. Moreover, the tool provides support for obtaining effective interfaces for each type of platform available, taking into account the consequent differences in terms of tasks and their performance.

USer Interface eXtensible Markup Language (USIXML) consists of a User Interface Description Language (UIDL) allowing designers to apply a multi-path development of user interfaces. In this development paradigm, a user interface can be specified and produced at and from different, and possibly multiple, levels of abstraction while maintaining the mappings between these levels if required. Thus, the development process can be initiated from any level of abstraction and proceed towards obtaining one or many final user interfaces for various contexts of use at other levels of abstraction. In this way, the model-to-model transformation which is the cornerstone of Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) can be supported in multiple configurations, based on composition of three basic transformation types: abstraction, reification, and translation.

This paper introduces and describes the notion of graceful degradation as a method for supporting the design of user interfaces for multiplatform systems when the capabilities of each platform are very different. The approach is based on a set of transformational rules applied to a single user interface designed for the less constraint platform. A major concern of the graceful degradation approach is to guarantee a maximal continuity between the platform specific versions of the user interface. In order to guarantee the continuity property, a priority ordering between rules is proposed. That ordering permits to apply first the rules with a minimal impact on the multiplatform system continuity.

Abstract not found

People often use a variety of computing devices, such as PCs, PDAs, and cell phones, to access the same information. The user interface to this information needs to be different for each device, due to the different input and output constraints of each device. Currently designers designing such multi-device user interfaces either have to design a UI separately for each device, which is time consuming, or use a program to automatically generate interfaces, which often result in interfaces that are awkward. Each method also discourages iterative design, considered critical for creating good user interfaces. We are creating a system called Damask to support the early-stage design of user interfaces targeted at multiple devices. With Damask, the designer will design a user interface for one device, by sketching the design and by specifying which design patterns the interface uses. The patterns will help Damask generate user interfaces optimized for the other devices targeted by the designer. The generated interfaces will be of sufficient quality so that it will be more convenient to use Damask than to design each of the other interfaces separately, and the ease with which designers will be able to create designs will encourage them to engage in iterative design. Damask will also

Over the last few years, Model-Based User Interface Design has become an important tool for creating multi-device User Interfaces. By providing

Constructing multi-device interfaces still presents major challenges, despite all eorts of the industry and several academic initiatives to develop usable solutions. One approach which is nding its way into general use, is XML-based User Interface descriptions to generate suitable User Interfaces for embedded systems and mobile computing devices. Another

VAQUISTA allows developers to reverse engineer a presentation model of a web page according to multiple reverse engineering options. The alternatives offered by these options not only widen the spectrum of possible presentation models but also encourage developers in exploring multiple reverse engineering strategies. The options provide filtering capabilities in a static analysis of HTML code that are targeted either at multiple widgets simultaneously or at single widgets at a time, for their attributes and other manipulations. This flexibility is particularly important when the presentation model is itself used to migrate the presentation of the web page to other types of user interfaces, possibly written in different languages, in different computing platforms.

vub.ac.be Currently, the vast majority of web sites do not support accessibility for visually impaired users. Usually, these users have to rely on screen readers: applications that sequentially read the content of a web page in audio. Unfortunately, screen readers are not able to detect the meaning of the different page objects, and thus the implicit semantic knowledge conveyed in the presentation of the page is lost. One approach described in literature to tackle this problem, is the Dante approach, which allows semantic annotation of web pages to provide screen readers with extra (semantic) knowledge to better facilitate the audio presentation of a web page. Until now, such annotations were done manually, and failed for dynamic pages. In this paper, we combine the Dante approach with a web design method, WSDM, to fully automate the generation of the semantic annotation for visually impaired users. To do so, the semantic knowledge gathered during the design process is exploited, and the annotations are generated as a by-product of the design process, requiring no extra effort from the designer. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.5.4 [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: Hypertext/Hypermedia – architecture, user issues; K.4.2