Jan Van den Bergh

Towards an Extensible Context Ontology for Ambient Intelligence

To realise an Ambient Intelligence environment, it is paramount that applications can dispose of information about the context in which they operate, preferably in a very general manner. For this purpose various types of information should be assembled to form a representation of the context of the device on which aforementioned applications run. To allow interoperability in an Ambient Intelligence environment, it is necessary that the context terminology is commonly understood by all participating devices. In this paper we propose an adaptable and extensible context ontology for creating context-aware computing infrastructures, ranging from small embedded devices to high-end service platforms. The ontology has been designed to solve several key challenges in Ambient Intelligence, such as application adaptation, automatic code generation and code mobility, and generation of device specific user interfaces.

Dygimes: Dynamically Generating Interfaces for Mobile Computing Devices and Embedded Systems

Constructing multi-device interfaces still presents major challenges, despite all efforts of the industry and several academic initiatives to develop usable solutions. One approach which is finding its way into general use, is XML-based User Interface descriptions to generate suitable User Interfaces for embedded systems and mobile computing devices. Another important solution is Model-based User Interface design, which evolved into a very suitable but academic approach for designing multi-device interfaces. We introduce a framework, Dygimes, which uses XML-based User Interface descriptions in combination with selected models, to generate User Interfaces for different kinds of devices at runtime. With this framework task specifications are combined with XML-based User Interface building blocks to generate User Interfaces that can adapt to the context of use. The design of the User Interface and the implementation of the application code can be separated, while smooth integration of the functionality and the User Interface is supported. The resulting interface is location independent: it can migrate over devices while invoking functionality using standard protocols.

Linking an integrated framework with appropriate methods for measuring QoE

Quality of Experience (QoE) has recently gained recognition for being an important determinant of the success of new technologies. Despite the growing interest in QoE, research into this area is still fragmented. Similar - but separate - efforts are being carried out in technical as well as user oriented research domains, which are rarely communicating with each other. In this paper, we take a multidisciplinary approach and review both user oriented and technical definitions on Quality of Experience (including the related concept of User Experience). We propose a detailed and comprehensive framework that integrates both perspectives. Finally, we take a first step at linking methods for measuring QoE with this framework.

Model-driven development of advanced user interfaces

The workshop on model-driven development of advanced user interfaces will be a forum of multi-disciplinary discussion on how to integrate model-driven development with the often more informal methodologies used in user-centered design. Starting point of the discussion will be the tools, models, methods and experiences of the workshop participants.

Towards modeling context-sensitive interactive applications: the context-sensitive user interface profile (CUP)

The construction of software systems is becoming increasingly complex because of the changing environments the software is supposed to function in. Taking into account the context of use, how the system reacts and anticipates changes in its working environment, is important for a wide range of applications, such as mobile services for example, Model-driven design is already widely accepted as a software engineering methodology to cope with these new type of requirements. This approach is known both in software engineering (e.g. model-driven architecture) as in the design of user interfaces (model-based user interface development), but although they target the same deficiencies from traditional approaches, there is still a gap between both. New modeling elements are necessary that allow the designer to make both context of use and user interactions explicit in the design phase and to create context-sensitive software that will be more robust and usable. We extend the UML 2.0 notation to address the aforementioned issues and present extensions to support the modeling of context-sensitive interactive applications. These extensions are defined in a new UML profile that can easily be used in existing modeling environments.

Designing distributed user interfaces for ambient intelligent environments using models and simulations

Abstract There is a growing demand for design support to create interactive systems that are deployed in ambient intelligent environments. Unlike traditional interactive systems, the wide diversity of situations these type of user interfaces need to work in require tool support that is close to the environment of the end-user on the one hand and provide a smooth integration with the application logic on the other hand. This paper shows how the model-based user interface development methodology can be applied for ambient intelligent environments; we propose a task-centered approach towards the design of interactive systems by means of appropriate visualizations and simulations of different models. Besides the use of these typical user interface models such as the task- and presentation-model to support interface design, we focus on user interfaces supporting situated task distributions and a visualization of context influences on deployed, possibly distributed, user interfaces. To enable this we introduce an environment model describing the device configuration at particular moment in time. To support the user interface designer while creating these complex interfaces for ambient intelligent environments, we discuss tool support using a visualization of the environment together with simulations of the user interface configurations. We also show how the concepts presented in the paper can be integrated within model-driven engineering, hereby narrowing the gap between HCI design and software engineering.

MuiCSer: A Process Framework for Multi-disciplinary User-Centred Software Engineering Processes

In this paper we introduce MuiCSer, a conceptual process framework for Multi-disciplinary User-centred Software Engineering (UCSE) processes. UCSE processes strive for the combination of basic principles and practices from software engineering and user-centred design approaches in order to increase the overall user experience with the resulting product. The MuiCSer framework aims to provide a common understanding of important components and associated activities of UCSE processes. As such, the conceptual framework acts as a frame of reference for future research regarding various aspects and concepts related to this kind of processes, including models, development artefacts and tools. We present the MuiCSer process framework and illustrate its instantiation in customized processes for the (re)design of a system. The conceptual framework has been helpful to investigate the role of members of a multi-disciplinary team when realizing artefacts in a model-based approach. In particular process coverage of existing artefact transformation tools has been studied.

Putting dementia into context: a selective literature review of assistive applications for users with dementia and their caregivers

People with dementia face a decline of their cognitive functions, including memory impairment and difficulty to orient in time and space. Assistive applications can ease the effects of dementia by assuming and supporting impaired functions. Context-awareness is an accepted paradigm for assistive applications. It enables interactive systems to react appropriately to situations that occur during daily routines of people with dementia. However, there currently is no recommended framework to view symptoms of dementia in terms of context and context-awareness. The aim of this paper is to inform designers in the early design stages of assistive applications how requirements and needs of people with dementia can be represented in a context-aware application. Based on a systematic literature review, we elicit which context types are linked to the needs of people with dementia and their caregivers and how they are used in existing assistive applications in dementia care. Our focus is on applications evaluated and assessed with people with dementia. We also classify these assistive applications by the offered context-aware services. We observe that these should not be limited within the realm of the local residence; context types that are valuable in-house can, to a certain extent, also be leveraged outside a local residence. We believe the proposed framework is a tool for application builders and interface designers to accomplish an informed design of systems for people with dementia.

CUP 2.0: high-level modeling of context-sensitive interactive applications

The Unified Modeling Language is mainly being used to communicate about the design of a software system. In recent years, the language is increasingly being used to specify models that can be used for partial code generation. These efforts are mainly focussed on the generation of the application structure. It has been used to a lesser extend to model the interaction with the user and the user interface. In this paper, we introduce CUP 2.0, a Unified Modeling Language profile for high-level modeling of context-sensitive interactive applications. The profile was created to ease communication about the design of these applications between human-computer interaction specialists and software engineers. We further argue that the data provided by the models, suffices to (semi-) automatically create interactive low-fidelity prototypes that can be used for evaluation.

Model-based design of context-sensitive interactive applications: a discussion of notations

Model-based design of user interfaces can be a viable alternative for other user interface specifications especially in the case of multi-platform and even more so in the case of context-sensitive interactive applications. In this paper we look at several notations used in model-based design methodologies and analyze them according to requirements we determined for the notations. In order to get an overview of how well different approaches are able to support the design context-sensitive interactive applications, we determine a set of models that are relevant for this type of applications and organize them visually in such a way that the level of support for different models and the relations between them could be shown adequately. Several notations used for model-based design of user interface or interactive systems were evaluated using these criteria. The resulting information was used to determine areas where work is needed to design better notations for the involved.