Comparative Analysis of Interaction Flow Modeling Language Tools

Since the emergence of web 2.0, the architecture of web applications has been transformed significantly and its complexity has grown enormously. In such web applications, the user interface (UI) is an important ingredient and with the increased complexity, its testing is getting increasingly complex and cost/time-consuming process. Recently introduced, interaction flow modeling language (IFML) is an object management group (OMG) standard. IFML is gaining popularity for developing web applications, primarily, because of its excellent features for modeling UI elements, their content, and their interaction capturing capabilities. However, despite its superior UI modeling features, its UI testing is accomplished through traditional time-consuming techniques, which are employed after implementing the UI code. Hence, to overcome these limitations, this paper introduces a novel model-based testing approach for IFML UI elements. The proposed approach provides complete navigation testing using formal models. Moreover, the approach transforms the IFML models to all necessary UI testing artifacts by generating state transition matrix plus detailed UI test case document. As a part of a research, model-based user interface test case (MBUITC) generator tool is implemented to automatically generate navigation model for formal verification, test case document, and transition matrices from IFML models. The applicability of the proposed approach is validated through two benchmark case studies. The results have shown that the proposed approach provides test cases at the early stages of development, i.e., specification and analysis, which eventually helps in building a right product at the right time at a comparatively lower cost.

Design of front-end interfaces in software applications is a complex process. In this context, Interaction Flow Modeling Language (IFML) is an emerging standard introduced in 2013 by Object Management Group (OMG). In this article, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is performed to examine the applications of IFML. Particularly, 22 research studies (2014-2017) are identified and analyzed. Consequently, four major areas are recognized where IFML is frequently applied i.e. mobile applications (9 studies), web applications (8 studies), others (4 studies) and desktop applications (1 study). Furthermore, 9 leading IFML tools are presented i.e. Modeling (3) and model transformation (6). It has been concluded that IFML certainly simplifies the design and implementation of front-end interfaces. However, the existing IFML tools are not mature enough to be utilized for complex and large software applications.

Many software systems are executable on various computing devices. No one denies that each of these devices has its own user interfaces. Nevertheless, this trend of computing everywhere is not accompanied by a solution that can be used to abstractly express the content, user interaction and control behavior of the software application front end without focusing on the implementation platform. Applying the concept of abstract models to user interfaces become a necessity. Accordingly, OMG adopted (in March 2013) the new Interaction Flow Modeling Language (IFML) for abstractly describing the system front end. It ensures executability in order to be mapped into executable applications for different kind of devices. In this paper, we propose a new model driven development approach to execute the logical description of UIs components and their interactions captured with IFML. We define IFVM, a virtual machine for executing IFML models with focus on the content-dependent navigation specification for passing parameters between the ViewElements, and the Data binding specification to specify the source of the published content.

The issue of waste management in Surabaya City remains a challenge that requires innovative, technology-based solutions. The aim of this research is to design and develop a mobile application that supports waste recycling in order to enhance community engagement and improve waste management in a more effective and sustainable manner. This study employs the Design Thinking method to formulate problem-solving approaches, understand user needs, and test the effectiveness of the proposed design. The mobile application design and development process involves five stages: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. The research results in a prototype application equipped with key features such as recycling education, location-based waste pick-up and drop-off services, and a loyalty points system to reward users. The presence of this application is expected to increase public awareness of sorting and recycling waste and contribute to environmental sustainability programs in Surabaya City.

Mobile software application development process must be matured enough to handle the challenges (especially market related) associated with the development of high quality mobile software development. Ever increasing number of both mobile users and mobile applications had presented software engineers with the challenge of satisfying billions of users with high quality software applications to be delivered within deadline and budgets. Always there had been a lot of pressure to develop complex software categorized by thousands of requirements, under resource constrained environment. Requirement prioritization is one of the activities undertaken by software engineer to deliver partial software product to its customers such that most important requirements are implemented in the earliest releases. During next releases some changed and pending requirements are implemented, an activity that generates ripple effects. Such ripple effects need to be tested by executing modified source code against test cases of previous releases (regression testing). Regression testing is a very effortful activity that requires a software tester to select test cases that have high fault detection capability, execute the modified code against selected test cases and performing debugging. This regression testing activity can be lowered to the maximum extend by considering dependencies between requirements during the time of requirement prioritization. Thus requirement prioritization will be carried out not only against aspects like cost, time, risks, business values etc but against dependencies also. The aim is to implement almost all dependent highest priority requirements in current release so that implementation of new requirements is unlikely to have ripple effects. Changes in requirements might not be related to variable usage and definition and might not involve a change in functionality. In such cases there is no need to select already executed test cases of previous versions. Module dependencies can lead to test case selections of previous versions if changes of requirement lead to ripple effects. This paper aims to implement highest priority requirements such that regression testing is performed to minimum thereby improving development process of mobile applications. The proposed technique had been successfully evaluated on Android based notification software application that meets the specification of Aakash tablets.

The accelerated development of new technology, particularly on mobile application has increased teacher’s responsibility as a learning facilitator. Since technology is improving, many applications keep on coming into the market to fulfill user demands. Mobile learning application is very useful in enriching the mobile learning experience of children. However, some applications fail to assist and increase children knowledge on the subject they studied. Moreover, some children are not interested in mobile applications due to issues such as poor interfaces. In this paper, some previous studies on quality attributes used to evaluate mobile learning applications were reviewed. A systematic literature review approach was employed to search previous papers and studies on usability quality attributes, particularly for mobile learning applications. The search strategy identified numerous studies on usability for mobile learning applications for children. The result showed that the top four usability quality attributes are efficiency, effectiveness; learnability and user satisfaction. The studies reviewed showed that usability evaluations were conducted during implementation phase only, and evaluation is often built as a description of the case study. This study explored the current literatures on the subject matter and stimulates further studies that will lead to improved usability and design of mobile learning applications for children.

BackgroundOral self-care plays an important role in maintaining oral health and preventing the occurrence of oral diseases. The association between good oral care and good oral hygiene is well known. However, the adherence to a proper daily oral hygiene regimen generally remains poor, so the prevalence of oral diseases remains high. Periodontal disease is the most common oral disease in the population. To enhance the adherence to good oral hygiene behaviors for patients with periodontal disease, we developed a personalized and evidence-based mobile application as an intervention tool for the purpose of initiating and improving good oral self-care.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to demonstrate the systematic development process and content of the oral self-care mobile application, OSCA.MethodsThe systematic development process of OSCA consists of three phases: behavioral diagnosis, intervention design, and assessment of OSCA. Firstly, behavioral problem of oral self-care was identified by the experts in periodontics care. Secondly, the intervention functions and the mode of delivery were designed based on the capability-opportunity-motivation behavioral model, which is the underpinning model behind the behavior change wheel framework. Thirdly, the developed app was evaluated by the experts through a heuristics evaluation checklist by adopting Morville’s Honeycomb model, and the final version of OSCA was assessed by the patients with periodontal disease using the System Usability Scale (SUS).ResultsThe problems of target behavior were identified and incorporated into the design of intervention functions. For the beta version of the OSCA, experts proposed four main suggestions to improve the usefulness. Experts evaluated the beta and final versions of the app using a heuristics evaluation checklist, providing mean scores of 4.38 and 4.62, respectively. For usability testing, 87 participants completed both the specified tasks and the SUS questionnaire, providing an SUS median score of 77.5 (IQR = 12.5) and an overall mean completion time of 12.22 minutes for the specified tasks. The mean scores of the intervention functions for capability establishment, motivation enhancement, and opportunity creation were 6.13, 5.88, and 6.06, respectively.ConclusionsThe study presents a rigorous design process of developing an evidence-based and personalized mobile application for oral self-care. The results of the expert evaluation confirmed the validated design and the participants were satisfied with the designed app.

Consumer-centered software applications nowadays are required to be available both as mobile and desktop versions. However, the app design is frequently made only for one of the two (i.e., mobile first or web first) while missing an appropriate design for the other (which, in turn, simply mimics the interaction of the first one). This results into poor quality of the interaction on one or the other platform. Current solutions would require different designs, to be realized through different design methods and tools, and that may require to double development and maintenance costs. In order to mitigate such an issue, this paper proposes a novel approach that supports the design of both web and mobile applications at once. Starting from a unique requirement and business specification, where web- and mobile-specific aspects are captured through tagging, we derive a platformindependent design of the system specified in IFML. This model is subsequently refined and detailed for the two platforms, and used to automatically generate both the web and mobile versions. If more precise interactions are needed for the mobile part, a blending with MobML, a mobile-specific modeling language, is devised. Full traceability of the relations between artifacts is granted.

Mobile applications have long become an integral part of everyday life and have gained popularity among ordinary users, small companies, and large enterprises. However, this is a completely separate area of software. We can say that this is a whole separate ecosystem. Creating functional software for this ecosystem comes with new requirements, constraints, and characteristics that were not used in previous software metrics evaluation methods such as desktop programs or web applications. Mobile applications have new features, limitations and capabilities that are different from other software. Estimating the size and effort helps the software development team approximate the costs needed to more successfully develop a software product such as a mobile application. An early estimate of size and effort is necessary to identify resources that can help in the early stages of implementation a software project within budget and on time. The reliability of the assessment is also of great importance. Low reliability can lead to overestimation or underestimation, which can have bad consequences for any software development company, especially mobile applications. However, the suitability of methods and models for measuring size and efforts that are used for traditional software (PC applications and web applications) do not always provide sufficient reliability for mobile applications.The main goal of this article is to analyze the usage of various methods and models for estimating size and effort the development of mobile applications, including for the Android OS at the initial stages of their design. There is a brief description of the main and widespread methods and models that are used to estimate the size and effort, such as: Lines of Code (LOC), Function Points (FP), COCOMO and COCOMO 2, COSMIC, FiSMA, application of regression analysis for construction of mathematical models. The methods and models proposed by various authors are directly analyzed.

ABSTRACTUser Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) are two crucial factors in the success of information systems, especially web-based applications and mobile applications. Design elements in web or mobile applications can be made more atrractive, by applying several elements in human-computer interaction theory based on user segmentation, product knowledge, consumer behavior, latest marketing theories, both in terms of visuals, after-effects, display sets, content, multimedia, lay-out menus on the web or mobile applications. In the recent state development of tourism in Bali, tourism transactions and promotions are already based on E-Tourism using web media and mobile applications. Making it easier for tourists to access information and services related to ticketing, transportation, accommodation and even travel packages. This study uses the User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) methods to view usability and web-quality from a web-based E-Tourism websites that promotes tourism in Bali.Keywords: User Interface, User Experience, E-Tourism, Informastion System, Bali Tourism.ABSTRAKUser Interface (UI) dan User Experience (UX) adalah dua faktor krusial dalam keberhasilan sistem informasi, terutama aplikasi berbasis web dan aplikasi mobile. Elemen desain dalam web dapat dibuat lebih menarik, dengan menerapkan beberapa elemen dalam teori interaksi manusia-komputer berdasarkan segmentasi user, pengetahuan produk, perilaku konsumen, teori pemasaran terbaru, baik dari segi visual, after-effect, display set, konten, multimedia, lay-out menu di web atau aplikasi mobile. Dalam perkembangan pariwisata di Bali saat ini, transaksi dan promosi pariwisata sudah berbasis E-Tourism dengan menggunakan media web dan aplikasi mobile. Sehingga mempermudah wisatawan dalam mengakses informasi dan layanan terkait dengan ticketing, transportasi, akomodasi bahkan paket perjalanan wisata. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode User Interface (UI) dan User Experience (UX) untuk melihat usability dan web-quality dari website layanan E-Tourism yang berbasis web yangmempromosikan pariwisata di Bali.Kata kunci: User Interface, User Experience, E-Tourism, Sistem Informasi, Pariwisata Bali.

This paper reports on collaborative work with an SME, developing a system for data acquisition in health care organisations, providing mobile data support. We briefly introduce the ICF and the ICD classification scheme from the WHO as a foundation for our mobile application. A two-staged usability evaluation in a very early stage of development allows us to integrate user-centred design in the mobile application development process. Our procedure comprises interviews and usability tests with a limited number of users and thus can even be performed within a resource-constrained setting as it is typically found in smaller software development teams. We discuss the consolidated results of the usability tests quantitatively and qualitatively. From these results we deduce recommendations (and open issues) concerning the user interface design of the mobile application.

This paper explores the design of mobile applications for supporting wellness activities. A cross-cultural user study was conducted in India and Finland. 16 participants used a technology probe (a mobile application called Wellness Diary) for the duration of two weeks. The focus of the study was to identify design factors that need to be considered when designing culturally sensitive mobile wellness applications. The findings are based on the subjective user experience reported by the participants, data collected with the technology probe, and ideas and needs of the participants that surfaced during the study. Results show that both cultural and environmental factors affect the needs towards the wellness application and usage of it. Differences were identified, for example, in how users defined wellness, what wellness concerns they had, attitudes towards setting goals, and how built and natural environments affected wellness activities.

Recent advances in mobile, wireless, and sensor technologies provide new possibilities for supporting learning activities that can be spatially distributed and incorporate different physical and environmental sensory data. In this paper, we present our technical efforts in relation to the design and implementation of mobile and web applications that integrate sensory data used to support inquiry-based science learning. In order to test the validity of our solution and its functionality and novelty, we conducted a prototype experiment with high school students in the field of environmental sciences. The initial outcomes presented in this paper point towards the potential benefits of using sensor and mobile technologies with real-time geo-positioned data and visualizations, which may increase students' engagement, enabling them to conduct scientific inquiries and analyses in new ways.

The mobile device market has witnessed swift industrial growth over the last decade. The quick expansion of this new computing platform has almost outpaced the software engineering processes customized to mobile application development. However, there is still lack of novel research initiatives around the mobile application development process. There remains a deficiency in development standards and best practices which expose the mobile device to potential attacks. This deficiency needs to be addressed promptly and requires further work. \nThe objective of this research is to better understand the current methodologies adapted and to investigate challenges faced during the mobile application development processes that are different from traditional enterprise application. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted from the mobile research and development community. The survey questions covered the entire mobile application development lifecycle starting with requirements, and ending with bringing to life a complete mobile application. \nThe study contributes towards a greater understanding of mobile application development process, examines real challenges confronted, and investigates the best practices that can be successfully implemented to enhance, evaluate, and improve the performance of the mobile application development process. These findings can also be considered as a possible research topic that indicates the breadth of research requirements and prospects in mobile computing.

Web application have gained increased acceptance over the years in companies and organization as the world move to a global village. Software developers have also grown interest in developing web applications compared to stand-alone application because of the immense benefits it offers such as ubiquity, platform dependence, low cost of support and maintenance, better speed and performance, piracy proof etc. As mobile application emerged in the last decade, attention has been focused on mobile applications by organizations and businesses in order to maximize their profits as much as possible. There has been a rapid increase of software release in the mobile applications store. As the growth of both web application and mobile application increase, the question of quality assurance remains a concern. A comparative study of software testing techniques can be performed to improve the standard of testing of both web and mobile application. This paper therefore reviews the similarity and difference in the testing mechanism.