Mode1-based design and evaluation of interactive applications / Fabio Paterna. p. cm. -(Applied computing) Inc1udes bibliographical references.

Abstract. We think that over the next few years, the goal of interactive systems and services will evolve from just making systems easy to use (even though that goal has not yet been completely achieved) to making systems that are easy to develop by end users. By now, most people have become familiar with the basic functionality and interfaces of computers, but they are not able to manage any programming language. Therefore, they cannot develop new applications or modify current ones according to their needs.In order to address such challenges it is necessary a new paradigm, based on a multidisciplinary approach involving several types of expertise, such as software engineering, human-computer interaction, CSCW, which are now rather fragmented and with little interaction. The resulting methods and tools can provide results useful across many application domains, such as ERP, multi-device services (accessible through both mobile and stationary devices), and professional applications.Key words. tailorability, end user programming, flexibility, usabilityWe think that over the next few years, the goal of human-computer interaction (HCI) will evolve from just making systems easy to use (even though that goal has not yet been completely achieved) to making systems that are easy to develop. By now, most people have become familiar with the basic functionality and interfaces of computers. However, developing new or modified applications that effectively support users' goals still requires considerable expertise in programming that cannot be expected from most people. Thus, one fundamental challenge for the coming years is to develop environments that allow users who do not have background in programming to develop or modify their own applications, with the ultimate aim of empowering people to flexibly employ advanced information and communication technologies.Current trends in professional life, education, and also in leisure time are characterized by increasing change and diversity: changing work and business practices, individual qualifications and preferences, or changes in the dynamic environments in which organizations and individuals act. The diversity concerns people with different skills, knowledge, cultural background, and cognitive or physiological abilities, as well Henry Lieberman et al. (eds.), End User Development, 1-8. C 2006 Springer.

In this paper we discuss a notation to describe task models, which can specify a wide range of temporal relationships among ta~ks. It is a compact and graphical notation, immediate both to use and understand. Its logical structure and the related automatic tool make it suitable for designing even large sized applications.KEYWORDS Task models, formal notations, model-based user interface design, tools for design.

AbstractÐWhile task modeling and task-based design are entering into current practice in the design of interactive software applications, there is still a lack of tools supporting the development and analysis of task models. Such tools should provide developers with ways to represent tasks, including their attributes and objects and their temporal and semantic relationships, to easily create, analyze, and modify such representations and to simulate their dynamic behavior. In this paper, we present a tool, CTTE, that provides thorough support for developing and analyzing task models of cooperative applications, which can then be used to improve the design and evaluation of interactive software applications. We discuss how we have designed this environment and report on trials of its use.Index TermsÐTask models, models for interactive software systems, automatic tools for human-computer interaction, user interfaces.

Abstract-The increasing availability of new types of interaction platforms raises a number of issues for designers and developers. There is a need for new methods and tools to support development of nomadic applications, which can be accessed through a variety of devices. This paper presents a solution, based on the use of three levels of abstractions, that allows designers to focus on the relevant logical aspects and avoid dealing with a plethora of low-level details. We have defined a number of transformations able to obtain user interfaces from such abstractions, taking into account the available platforms and their interaction modalities while preserving usability. The transformations are supported by an authoring tool, TERESA, which provides designers and developers with various levels of automatic support and several possibilities for tailoring such transformations to their needs.Index Terms-Design tools and techniques, user interfaces, heterogeneous clients, multiplatform user interfaces, authoring environments, abstract user interfaces, user interface design, task models.

Abstract-The main goal of this work is to propose a method to evaluate user interfaces using task models and logs generated from a user test of an application. The method can be incorporated into an automatic tool which gives the designer information useful to evaluate and improve the user interface. These results include an analysis of the tasks which have been accomplished, those which failed and those never tried, user errors and their type, time-related information, task patterns among the accomplished tasks, and the available tasks from the current state of the user session. This information is also useful to an evaluator checking whether the specified usability goals have been accomplished. Index Terms-User interfaces, usability engineering, formal methods for human-computer interaction, task models, user interface evaluation.

This article presents the past, present and future of model-based user interface development. After 30 years of research there has been significant success in modeling user interfaces. This article aims to give a comprehensive overview of the history, describes important aspects and current approaches, lists actual challenges of model-based user interface development and gives implications for the next generation.

Our life is characterized by the presence of a multitude of interactive devices and smart objects exploited for disparate goals in different contexts of use. Thus, it is impossible for application developers to predict at design time the devices and objects users will exploit, how they will be arranged, and in which situations and for which objectives they will be used. For such reasons, it is important to make end users able to easily and autonomously personalize the behaviour of their Internet of Things applications, so that they can better comply with their specific expectations. In this paper, we present a method and a set of tools that allow end users without programming experience to customize the context-dependent behaviour of their Web applications through the specification of trigger-action rules. The environment is able to support end-user specification of more flexible behaviour than what can be done with existing commercial tools, and it also includes an underlying infrastructure able to detect the possible contextual changes in order to achieve the desired behaviour. The resulting set of tools is able to support the dynamic creation and execution of personalized application versions more suitable for users’ needs in specific contexts of use. Thus, it represents a contribution to obtaining low threshold/high ceiling environments. We also report on an example application in the home automation domain, and a user study that has provided useful positive feedback.