A Constraint-based User Interface Design Method for Mobile Computing Devices

Abstract

The rapid development of mobile devices and diversity of platforms require the adaptability and portability of the software. In order to automatically generate software interface on all kinds of mobile computing devices, the problem of dividing interface into screens automatically must be solved at first. This paper makes use of a constraint-based description method to describe the interface of mobile devices. In this way, the platformindependence of interface information is achieved. Taking advantage of the characteristics of interface components tree, this paper solves the problem of interface division. We discuss two division methods, depth-first principle and breadth-first principle and their advantages and disadvantages. Also the process ofgenerating interfaces is given in this paper

Interface Tailoring by Exploiting Temporality of Attributes for Small Screens

“…In the literature, interface tailoring approaches are investigated to develop UI forms for mobile devices [1,4]. In these approaches, the PC-based UI is divided into multiple screens (or high-level components) in such a way that the UI can accommodate in a mobile screen.…”

“…The problem of division of large interface into numerous small screens is identified in [1,4]. User interface tailoring [4] is a solution to such problem, which tailors information based on the mobile devices screen.…”

“…In this approach, the information is tailored to display only the important information on the interface. This approach does not guarantee the integrity of information [1]. Another approach is dividing large PC interface into smaller ones such that it can match the size of the mobile phone screen [1].…”

“…This approach does not guarantee the integrity of information [1]. Another approach is dividing large PC interface into smaller ones such that it can match the size of the mobile phone screen [1]. In this method, the large interface is divided into small screens.…”

“…Tailoring of the interface design includes the capability of adaptation of content delivery to various devices, which preserve consistency and usability of the service [4]. One of the interface tailoring approaches namely, a constrained-based UI method [1] is proposed to tailor the PC-based UI such that it matches the mobile screen using componenttree.…”