Montserrat Sendín

Building a Usable and Accessible Semantic Web Interaction Platform

Semantic Web applications take off is being slower than expected, at least with respect to “real-world” applications and users. One of the main reasons for this lack of adoption is that most Semantic Web user interfaces are still immature from the usability and accessibility points of view. This is due to the novelty of these technologies, but this also motivates the exploration of alternative interaction paradigms, different from the “traditional” Web or Desktop applications ones. Our proposal is realized in the Rhizomer platform, which explores the possibilities of the object–action interaction paradigm at the Web scale. This paradigm is well suited for heterogeneous resource spaces such as those common in the Semantic Web. Resources, described by metadata, correspond to the objects in the paradigm. Semantic web services, which are dynamically associated to these objects, correspond to the actions. The platform is being put into practice in the context of a research project in order to build an open application for media distribution based on Semantic Web technologies. Moreover, its usability and accessibility have been evaluated in this real setting and compared to similar systems.

Implicit plasticity framework: a client-side generic framework for collaborative activities

We are interested in integrating and exploiting the shared-knowledge from a group by an existing infrastructure of plasticity, as another parameter more to be embedded in the adaptation process. The aim is to offer the benefits from plasticity and awareness jointly, providing a systematic support in both issues. In this paper we focus on the proactive adaptation to contexts of use under a plasticity viewpoint. The aim is to promote interaction and real time coordination, contributing to real collaboration in multiple and changing groupware scenarios.

Contributions of Dichotomic View of plasticity to seamlessly embed accessibility and adaptivity support in user interfaces

Recent legal changes have increased the need for developing accessible user interfaces in computer-based systems. In this sense, previously existing user interfaces are intended to be modified and new user interfaces are intended to be designed taking accessibility guidelines into account. Typically, model-based approaches have been used when developing accessible user interfaces or redefining existing ones. But the use of static models leads to the development of not dynamically adaptable user interfaces. Dynamic adaptation in accessible user interfaces is important due to the fact that interaction difficulties on people with disabilities may change through use. In this paper, we present some contributions that can be obtained from the application of the Dichotomic View of plasticity in the personalization of user interfaces. With the double perspective defined in this approach, it is intended to go further from a mere adaptation to certain user stereotypes, offering also a dynamic support to real limitations or difficulties users can encounter during the use of the UI. This goal is achieved analyzing user logs by an inference engine that dynamically infers modifications in the user interface to adjust it to varying user needs. A case study is presented in order to show how the guidelines and software support defined in the Dichotomic View of plasticity can be applied to develop a component for a particular system aimed at performing dynamic user interface adaptations with accessibility purposes. This approach includes some innovations that make it different from conventional adaptable mechanisms applied to accessibility in some important aspects.

Towards a Framework to Develop Plastic User Interfaces

In previous works we have been developing a tourism support prototype that offers a proven solution for aspects of multi-platform, personalization and spatial-awareness. The aim of this paper is to analyze its drawbacks and to propose a framework and the underlying architecture, inspired by the model-based approach, to solve those relying on the principle of abstraction. It consists of a reflexive architecture that allows specifying a generic user interface (UI) independently of the rest of the implementation, fulfilling the plasticity property. Developers only have to focus on modelling the functionality of the application -residing at a base level-, leaving the interface to a meta level, constructing thereby {it interfaces “on the fly”}. The generation of the UI is not carried out until run-time, translating automatically abstract interaction components to concrete ones according to the device, the user’s features and the current context, accordingly reusable in other applications.

Multi-Purpose Infrastructure for Delivering and Supporting Mobile Context-Aware Applications

The use of contextual information in mobile devices is receiving increasing attention in mobile and ubiquitous computing research. An important requirement for mobile development today is that devices should be able to interact with the context. In this paper we present a series of contributions regarding previous work on context-awareness. In the first place, we describe a client-server architecture that provides a mechanism for preparing target non context-aware applications in order to be delivered as context-aware applications in a semi- automatic way. Secondly, the framework used in the server to instantiate specific components for context-awareness, the Implicit Plasticity Framework, provides independence from the underlying mobile technology used in client device, as it is shown in the case studies presented. Finally, proposed infrastructure deals with the interaction among different context constraints provided by diverse sensors. All of these contributions are extensions to the infrastructure based on the Dichotomic View of plasticity, which now offers multi-purpose support.

Software Infrastructure for Delivering and Supporting Distributed Applications Enhanced with Awareness

Last technological advances have brought drastic changes affecting the way distributed systems are conceived. Designers have to tackle the fact that applications could be controlled by different end users on diverse computing platforms in assorted environments. However, these kinds of facilities only make sense when they are ruled by the well-known group awareness. It is necessary to devise new mechanisms to support and automate the creation of distributed applications flexible enough to cope with the increasing diversity of contexts and able to deal with different group situations. In this paper we present how the guidelines and software support defined in the Dichotomic View of Plasticity can be applied to develop components for particular systems aimed at providing and maintaining group awareness. The aim is to promote distributed interaction and real time coordination among remote users, contributing to real collaboration and a deeper understanding in multi-environment groupware scenarios. This approach includes some innovations that make it different from conventional groupware design methods in some important aspects. A case study is presented in order to show how the approach works.

User interfaces: a proposal for automatic adaptation

In previous works we have been developing a tourism support prototype that offers a proven solution for aspects of multi-platform, personalisation and spatial-awareness. The aim of this paper is to analyse its drawbacks and limitations, and to propose an architecture that solves these problems relying on the principle of abstraction. It consists of a reflexive architecture based on models, and component-oriented, that allows specifying the user interface independently of the rest of the implementation. Thus, developers only have to focus on modelling the functionality of the application -which resides at a base level-, leaving the interface to a meta level, constructing thereby applications without apparent interface. The generation of the UI is not carried out until run-time, applying an automatic translation from abstract interaction components to concrete ones according to the device and the users features and current state.

25 years teaching HCI in UdL

This work shows the evolution of teaching HCI in the university studies of computer engineering at the University of Lleida. The progress is described in terms of the content and the teaching methodologies based on the experience acquired during the last 25 years. The article details the changes made in the different degrees, from the methodology to the content perspective. The intent is to provide a reference document that can be useful for the teaching community interested in the Human-Computer Interaction discipline.

Validation of a Framework for Enriching Human–Computer–Human Interaction with Awareness in a Seamless Way

Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) environments enable users to interact with each other by using computers to conveniently share relevant data across the user interface. Awareness is an essential requirement in CSCW to convey precise information about the context in which the work in group is taking place, contributing thus to collaboration between users. In this kind of environments, we need to go beyond traditional human computer interaction to embrace human computer human interaction (HCHI). It is necessary to devise flexible mechanisms to support HCHI in dealing with the diversity of contexts and group concerns. Furthermore, these mechanisms should endeavor to provide a seamless integration with current development techniques. This work presents a multi-purpose framework to include group awareness in HCHI systems in a seamless way. Proposed framework is based on the Dichotomic View of Plasticity approach. An experiment was conducted with two different versions of a specific groupware platform: the original platform and a new version of it, extended by means of the proposed framework. The goal was twofol: (i) to verify the benefits of applying this framework and (ii) to validate, in terms of user satisfaction, the improvement regarding groupware features introduced in the extended version. The results of the experiment backed up our hypothesis by showing that proposed framework is able to add awareness support to existing human computer Human (HCH) interfaces in a seamless way. It is also showed that added awareness components effectively contributed to achieve a higher level of collaboration among users.

Software Infrastructure for Enriching Distributed User Interfaces with Awareness

Last technological advances have brought drastic changes affecting the way interactive systems are conceived. Application developers have to tackle the fact that user interfaces could be controlled by multiple end users on diverse computing platforms in assorted environments. Novel user interfaces enable end users to distribute any widget and piece of information across different contexts. However, these kinds of facilities acquire an added value when they are ruled by the well-known awareness. It is necessary to devise new mechanisms to support distributed user interfaces flexible enough to deal with the diversity of contexts and group concerns. Presented work provides a series of contributions in distributed user interfaces support, in the line of with respect to introducing awareness.