T11 Tools and Methods for the Design of Multi-Device User Interfaces
Abstract
Nowadays, everyday life is becoming a multi-platform environment where people are surrounded by different types of devices through which they can connect to networks in different ways. Most of them are mobile personal devices carried by users moving freely about different environments populated by various other devices. This tutorial will discuss how methods and tools can support designers and developers to address a number of challenges raised by pervasive usability, such as the possibility of obtaining user interfaces able to adapt to any device. It will provide an overview concerning results that can be obtained through model-based approaches, in particular when multi-device interfaces, even using different modalities, are considered, and will link up the discussion to projects currently underway. A key aspect is to be able to have different views on interactive systems, each view associated with a different abstraction level. With the support of tools, XML-based languages and transformations, it is possible to move from one level to another and convert a description for one interaction platform to another for a different one. To address such issues, traditional solutions such as transcoding or style sheets are not enough. We need environments able to support designers and developers to obtain usable multi-device and multi-modal interfaces. Such tools should be able to provide various levels of automation and to capture the many relations between tasks and platforms. Integrated support of top-down and bottom-up transformations can provide the flexibility necessary to address the many needs of developers and designers.
The tutorial will also address migratory interfaces, discussing their main features and possible solutions for supporting them. It will indicate how logical descriptions of an interactive system can support run-time migration of user interfaces through different platforms, even with different modalities, while preserving task performance continuity. This implies attention to run-time adaptation of interactive systems, tools supporting such methods, and representations able to capture the information that the methods require for runtime support. Lastly, a research agenda for the field will be introduced and discussed.
Biography
Fabio Paternò