Abstract. This paper defines the problem space of distributed, migratable and plastic user interfaces, and presents CAMELEON-RT 1 , a technical answer to the problem. CAMELEON-RT 1 is an architecture reference model that can be used for comparing and reasoning about existing tools as well as for developing future run time infrastructures for distributed, migratable, and plastic user interfaces. We have developed an early implementation of a run time infrastructure based on the precepts of CAMELEON-RT 1 .
Abstract. Plasticity of User Interfaces (UIs) refers to the ability of UIs to withstand variations of context of use () while preserving usability. This paper presents COMET, a software architecture style for building task-based plastic interactors. COMET bridges the gap between two main approaches in plasticity: model-driven engineering and interactors toolkits. Interactors that are compliant to the COMET style are called COMETs. These COMETs are multi-rendering multi-technological interactors (WIMP and post-WIMP, Web and non Web as well as vocal). COMETs are extensible and controllable by the user (up until now the designer, in the future the end-user). The COMET architecture and the use of COMETs are illustrated on an executable prototype: a slide viewer called CamNote++.
Abstract. This paper addresses software adaptation to context of use. It goes one step further than our early work on plasticity [5]. Here, we propose a revision of the notion of software plasticity that we apply at the widget level in terms of comets. Plasticity is defined as the ability of an interactive system to withstand variations of context of use while preserving quality in use where quality in use refers to the ISO definition. Plasticity is not limited to the UI components of an interactive system, nor to a single platform: adaptation to context of use may also impact the functional core, it may have an effect on the nature of the connectors, and it may draw upon the existence of multiple platforms in the vicinity to migrate all or portions of the interactive system. A new reference framework that structures the development process of plastic interactive systems is presented to cover these issues. The framework is then applied at the granularity of widgets to provide the notion of a comet. A comet is an introspective widget that is able to self-adapt to some context of use, or that can be adapted by a tier-component to the context of use, or that can be dynamically discarded (versus recruited) when it is unable (versus able) to cover the current context of use. To do so, a comet publishes the quality in use it guarantees, the user tasks and the domain concepts that it is able to support, as well as the extent to which it supports adaptation.
Abstract. In this paper, we describe the COMETs Inspector, a software tool providing user interface designers and developers with a semantic network in order to control the plasticity of their User Interfaces (UI) at run-time. Thanks to a set of predefined relationships, the semantic network links together various concepts ranging from the final UI (i.e., the UI described in terms of technological spaces) to the concrete and abstract UIs (i.e., the UI respectively described in terms of concrete interaction objects independently of any technological space, and abstract individual components and containers independently of any interaction modality) up to the tasks and concepts of the interactive system. In this way, plasticity can be addressed at four levels of abstraction (task and concepts, abstract, concrete, and final user interface) for forward, reverse, and lateral engineering. The end user exploits the semantic network at run time to adapt his/her UI to another context of use by identifying, selecting, and applying plasticity suitable operations.
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