Carmen Santoro

CTTE: support for developing and analyzing task models for interactive system design

While task modeling and task-based design are entering into current practice in the design of interactive software applications, there is still a lack of tools supporting the development and analysis of task models. Such tools should provide developers with ways to represent tasks, including their attributes and objects and their temporal and semantic relationships, to easily create, analyze, and modify such representations and to simulate their dynamic behavior. In this paper, we present a tool, CTTE, that provides thorough support for developing and analyzing task models of cooperative applications, which can then be used to improve the design and evaluation of interactive software applications. We discuss how we have designed this environment and report on trials of its use.

Design and development of multidevice user interfaces through multiple logical descriptions

The increasing availability of new types of interaction platforms raises a number of issues for designers and developers. There is a need for new methods and tools to support development of nomadic applications, which can be accessed through a variety of devices. We present a solution, based on the use of three levels of abstractions, that allows designers to focus on the relevant logical aspects and avoid dealing with a plethora of low-level details. We have defined a number of transformations able to obtain user interfaces from such abstractions, taking into account the available platforms and their interaction modalities while preserving usability. The transformations are supported by an authoring tool, TERESA, which provides designers and developers with various levels of automatic support and several possibilities for tailoring such transformations to their needs.

MARIA: A universal, declarative, multiple abstraction-level language for service-oriented applications in ubiquitous environments

One important evolution in software applications is the spread of service-oriented architectures in ubiquitous environments. Such environments are characterized by a wide set of interactive devices, with interactive applications that exploit a number of functionalities developed beforehand and encapsulated in Web services. In this article, we discuss how a novel model-based UIDL can provide useful support both at design and runtime for these types of applications. Web service annotations can also be exploited for providing hints for user interface development at design time. At runtime the language is exploited to support dynamic generation of user interfaces adapted to the different devices at hand during the user interface migration process, which is particularly important in ubiquitous environments.

One Model, Many Interfaces

The wide variety of devices currently available, which is bound to increase in the coming years, poses a number of issues for the design cycle of interactive software applications. Model-based approaches can provide useful support in addressing this new challenge. In this paper we present and discuss a model-based method for the design of nomadic applications showing how the use of models can support their design. The aim is to enable each interaction device to support the appropriate tasks users expect to perform and designers to develop the various device-specific application modules in a consistent manner.

Tool support for designing nomadic applications

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

UbiCicero: A location-aware, multi-device museum guide

In this paper, we propose UbiCicero, a multi-device, location-aware museum guide able to opportunistically exploit large screens when users are nearby. Various types of games are included in addition to the museum and artwork descriptions. The mobile guide is equipped with an RFID reader, which detects nearby tagged artworks. By taking into account context-dependent information, including the current user position and behaviour history, as well as the type of device available, more personalised and relevant information is provided to the user, enabling a richer overall experience. We also present example applications of this solution and then discuss the results of first empirical tests performed to evaluate the usefulness and usability of the enhanced multi-device guide.

Preventing user errors by systematic analysis of deviations from the system task model

Interactive safety-critical applications have specific requirements that cannot be completely captured by traditional evaluation techniques. In this paper, we discuss how to perform a systematic inspection-based analysis to improve both usability and safety aspects of an application. The analysis considers a system prototype and the related task model and aims to evaluate what could happen when interactions and behaviours occur differently from what the system design assumes. We also provide a description and discussion of an application of this method to a case study in the air traffic control domain.

A unified method for designing interactive systems adaptable to mobile and stationary platforms

Abstract The wide variety of devices currently available, which is bound to increase in the coming years, poses a number of issues for the design cycle of interactive software applications. Model-based approaches can provide useful support in addressing this new challenge. In this paper we present and discuss a method for the design of nomadic applications showing how the use of models can support their design. The aim is to enable each interaction device to support the appropriate tasks users expect to perform and designers to develop the various device-specific application modules in a consistent manner.

TERESA: a transformation-based environment for designing and developing multi-device interfaces

The ever-increasing availability of new types of devices raises a number of issues for user interface designers and interactive software developers. We have designed and developed a model-based authoring environment (TERESA), which provides support when designing and developing interfaces accessible through various device types in Web-based environment.

A Tool Suite for Integrating Task and System Models through Scenarios

This paper presents a set of tools supporting the development of interactive systems using two different notations. One of these notations, called ConcurTaskTrees (CTT), is used for task modelling. The other notation, called Interactive Cooperative Objects (ICO), is used for system modelling. Even though these two kinds of models represent two different views of the same world (users interacting with interactive systems), they are built by different people and used independently. The aim of this paper is to propose the use of scenarios as a bridge between these two views. On the task modelling side, scenarios are seen as possible traces of activities, while on the system side, they are viewed as traces of actions. This generic approach is presented in a case study in the domain of Air Traffic Control.