Sophie Lepreux

A human-centred methodology applied to decision support system design and evaluation in a railway network context

This article describes a methodological process for the design and evaluation of an interactive system in an industrial context. The process is called the U-model, and has been used in many projects since the early 1990s. The article describes a recent case study in which the U-model was adapted and used during a project involving the design of a decision support system intended for a railway investment context.

Survey of information visualization techniques for exploitation in KDD

The last years witnessed a continued growth of the amount of data. The data analysis and exploration has become more and more difficult. So, it seems important to find means to visually represent this flood of data. Information visualization can help any user to get and understand information efficiently and implicate him/her in the data mining process thanks to our perception possibilities. The visualization domain proposes a large number of information visualization techniques which have been developed over the last decade to support the exploration of large data sets. In this paper, we propose a classification of information visualization techniques. We present also each technique, its advantages and disadvantages.

Simulation in Contexts Involving an Interactive Table and Tangible Objects

By using an interactive table, it is possible to interact with several people (decision-makers) in a simultaneous and collaborative way, around the table, during a simulation session. Thanks to the RFID technology with which the table is fitted, it is possible to give tangible objects a unique identity to include and to consider them in the simulation. The paper describes a context model, which takes into consideration the specificities related to interactive tables. The TangiSense interactive table is presented; it is connected to a multi-agent system making it possible to give the table a certain level of adaptation: each tangible object can be associated to an agent which can bring roles to the object (i.e., the roles are the equivalent of a set of behaviors). The multi-agent system proposed in this paper is modeled according to an architecture adapted to the exploitation of tangible and virtual objects during simulation on an interactive table. A case study is presented; it concerns a simulation of road traffic management. The illustrations give an outline of the potentialities of the simulation system as regards the context-awareness aspect, following both the actions of the decision-makers implied in simulation, and the agents composing the road traffic simulation.

Towards multimodal user interfaces composition based on UsiXML and MBD principles

In software design, the reuse issue brings the increasing of web services, components and others techniques. These techniques allow reusing code associated to technical aspect (as software component). With the development of business components which can integrate technical aspect with HCI, the composition issue has appeared. Our previous work concerned the GUI composition based on an UIDL as UsiXML. With the generalization of Multimodal User Interfaces (MUI), MUI composition principles have to be studied. This paper aims at extend existing basic composition principles in order to treat multimodal interfaces. The same principle as in the previous work, based on the tree algebra, can be used in another level (AUI) of the UsiXML framework to support the Multimodal User Interfaces composing. This paper presents a case study on the food ordering system based on multimodal (coupling GUI and MUI). A conclusion and the future works in the HCI domain are presented.

Towards A Support of User Interface Design By Composition Rules

The design of user interfaces is a step which takes a long time. The automatic generation of these interfaces induces shorter durations. With this automatic generation, the UIDLs have appeared. They allow specifying an interface using a Description Language. A step which also takes a long time is the redesigning of the user interface to take into accounts users remarks. We propose to use the operators of the tree algebra with a UIDL as UsiXML which is structured as a tree to improve this step of design. These operators help the designer to modify the interfaces and to reuse parts of interfaces. We have estimated the saving of time in two case studies

Distributed UI on Interactive Tabletops: Issues and Context Model

The User Interface distribution can also be applied on interactive tabletops which are connected and more or less remote. This distribution raises issues which concern collaboration (how to distribute the UI to collaborate?); besides, concerning the tangible interaction: which role and appearance (tangible or virtual) must have the objects? In this chapter we describe an extended context model in order to take into account both interactions on a single interactive tabletop and interactions which are distributed and collaborative. The model proposed can, from our point of view, be used to make sure that the usability of the interaction is guaranteed. Indeed, it is essential to know the interaction configuration in order to ensure the usability of the system. The model suggested is illustrated in a case study integrating collaboration and UI distribution. A conclusion gives the limits of the article before a presentation of prospects.

Tasks models merging for high-level component composition

As users become more and more demanding about the software environments they use, they need environments offering them the possibility to integrate new tools in response to their emerging needs. However, most high-level component composition solutions remain out of reach for users. Thanks to an innovative approach that tends to provide more understandable components, we propose in this paper a new mechanism in order to assist high-level component composition. This approach proposes to realize this composition through tasks models assembling. The assistance we propose is based on an adaptation of tree algebra operators and is able to automatically merge tasks trees in order to assist high-level component integration in a more global environment.

Distributed Interactive Surfaces: A Step Towards the Distribution of Tangible and Virtual Objects

After having outlined the uses of new technologies such as smartphones, touchscreen tablets and laptops, in this paper we present the TangiSense interactive table, equipped with RFID technology tagged on tangible objects, as new paradigm of interaction for ambient intelligence. We propose a problem space and some scenarios illustrating the distribution of user interfaces within the framework of collective work. A case study centered on crisis management units, i.e. a collaborative situation, with multiple actors who are geographically separate, makes it possible to illustrate possible distributed uses and the TangiSense’s capacities. To finish, the chapter presents the directions under consideration for our future research.

A LANGUAGE PERSPECTIVE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF PLASTIC MULTIMODAL USER INTERFACES

Designing complex interactive systems requires the collaboration of actors with very different background. As a result, several languages and tools are used in a single project with no hope for interoperability. In this article, we examine whether a universal language is a realistic approach to UI specification by looking for answers into the domain of Linguistics while finding analogies in software engineering. Then, we explore one particular avenue from main-stream software engineering: that of Model Driven Engineering where the notion of transformation is key to the definition of bridges between languages and tools. Building upon these two analyses, we then show how model-driven engineering can be successfully exploited in the development and execution of plastic multimodal UIs illustrated with a variety of complementary tools.

Context-sensitive and Collaborative application for Distributed User Interfaces on tabletops

This paper focuses on collaborative work on interactive tabletops. To optimize the travel time of team members (remote workplace, telecommuting, and so on), collaborative work is now often remotely done. This brings many user interfaces issues between distributed platforms of each member. In the domain of context-sensitive user interfaces, which aims at an adaptation to the users, the platforms and the environment, context models have been proposed in the literature. We propose, in this paper, a context model for distributed applications centered on collaboration and interactive tabletops. The proposed model is validated by a distributed application, which is developed on two interactive tabletops with tangible interaction; these tabletops are equipped with RFID technology. This application, which has educational purposes, highlights the collaborative aspect and exchanges between remote users. The paper ends with a conclusion and several perspectives.