Evaluating context-aware user interface migration in multi-device environments

Mobility coupled with the development of a wide variety of access devices has engendered new requirements for HCI such as the ability of user interfaces to adapt to different contexts of use. We define a context of use as the set of values of variables that characterise thecomputational device(s) used for interacting with the system as well as the physical and social environment where the interaction takes place. A user interface is plastic if it is able to adapt to context changes while preserving usability. In this paper, we present a process and a software mechanism that support context changes for plastic user interfaces. We propose to structure adaptation as a three-step process: recognition of the situation,computation of a reaction to cope with the situation, and execution of the reaction. Reactions are specified in an evolution model which, in turn, is executed by a context supervisor. This supervisor is notified of context changes by a software probe that automatically detects deviations from the current situation. When notified, the supervisor executes the evolution model, and, when possible, adapts the user interface to the new context of use.

Evolutionary design of user interfaces for workflow information systems

Adapting User Interfaces (UI) while in mobility remains challenging as contexts of use identification and changes can obviously not be finely envisioned at design time. However, user's tasks, habits and preferences may be context dependent. As a result, there is a need for managing context-aware adaptation at runtime. This paper describes EMMA (Embedded Manager for Mobile Adaptation), a running system that gathers data in mobility, learns key contexts of use, and provides the end-user with relevant adaptation. The process is based on a bayesian user model embedded on a Smartphone running under Windows Mobile operating system. It is placed under the end-user's control through a dedicated UI, called meta-UI. Besides this end-user's partner role, EMMA can serve as a designer's partner tool for identifying the key contexts of use in the wild.

The demand for accessible and convenient pet healthcare services is increasing, yet digitalization in this field remains limited compared to human healthcare services. Many pet shops and animal clinics still utilize conventional systems that lack efficiency in their service delivery. This research aims to design a mobile-based user interface (UI) for the PetDoc application using the User Centered Design (UCD) method and the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle. The research methodology encompasses four stages: understanding the context of use through interviews with pet shop owners and customers; determining user requirements including online consultations, service reservations, medical records, online store, and articles and tips; designing solutions using Figma application; and evaluating the design with the System Usability Scale (SUS). Evaluation results from five evaluators showed an average SUS score of 88.0 (categorized as "Excellent"), indicating that the PetDoc application UI design has a very good level of usability. This research produced a UI prototype that integrates various main features into a single, easily accessible platform by applying the KISS principle, which simplifies interactions and reduces unnecessary complexity in accessing pet healthcare services.

With the advent of new media and the delivery of recent means of communication, associated with the progress of networks, the circumstances of software use, as well as the skills and the preferences of the users who exploit them, are constantly varying. The adaptation of the User Interface (UI) has become a necessity due to the variety of the contexts of use. In this paper, we propose an approach based on models for the generation of adaptive UI. To reach this objective, we have made use of parameterized transformation principle in the framework of the Model Driven Engineering (MDE) for the transformation of the abstract interface into a concrete interface. The parameter of this transformation plays the role of the context of use. The paper develops two parts: meta-models for every constituent of the context of use and the adaptation rules.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for predicting the role and effects of perceived organizational identity (POI) on organizational members' perceptions and behaviors during crisis and change situations, and the scope of the resulting POI changes that may occur.Design/methodology/approachThe paper brings together research on crisis, change, threat/opportunity, and POI, along with case study data to create a threat/opportunity framework for making these predictions.FindingsBased on whether threat or opportunity is perceived during crisis and change situations, different aspects of individuals' POIs will become salient. In threat situations, individuals will focus on perceptions of “who we are.” In opportunity situations, individuals will also focus on “who we could be.” The focus of attention and the threat/opportunity context will influence organizational identification, learning, and openness to change; and whether incremental or transformational POI change occurs. The perception of “who we could be” will motivate more change than the ideal organizational identity or the image of “who we want to be” that is typically studied in the literature. The scope of POI change is also dependent on perceptions of identity cost and the identity gap.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research can test the hypotheses suggested here in various crisis and change contexts. Also, differentiating between threat and opportunity contexts is important for understanding the role of POI, and the extent to which POI changes can occur in crisis and change situations. Studies of resistance to POI change could consider whether individuals perceived the identity cost and the identity gap as being too low. More research on POI in opportunity contexts could expand understanding of the POI image of “who we could be” in motivating POI change. Finally, further integration of the literature on crisis and change can benefit both fields.Practical implicationsPractitioners can predict which aspects of POI will become salient in threat and opportunity conditions, and manage their different effects. For individuals to learn and change their POIs during crisis and change situations, managers need to diminish heightened perceptions of threat and shift the focus of attention to “who we could be.” Top managers' claims of “who we could be” need to be perceived by organizational members as being desirable and attainable in order to be motivating. Finally, to create transformational POI change, executives need to highlight the identity cost of not changing, and the size of the identity gap.Originality/valueThe threat/opportunity framework enables new predictions of the role and effects of POI in crisis and change situations. The paper highlights the POI image of “who we could be,” defines incremental and transformational POI change, redefines the identity gap concept, and introduces the notion of identity cost to provide a framework for predicting the scope of POI change that has received limited research attention. Finally, the paper contributes to research on POI in opportunity‐oriented conditions, and integrates research on crisis and change.

Ten years ago, I introduced the notion of user interface plasticity to denote the capacity of user interfaces to adapt, or to be adapted, to the context of use while preserving usability. The Model Driven Engineering (MDE) approach, which was used for user interface generation since the early eighties in HCI, has recently been revived to address this complex problem. Although MDE has resulted in interesting and convincing results for conventional WIMP user interfaces, it has not fully demonstrated its theoretical promises yet. In this paper, we discuss how to push MDE to the limit in order to reconcile high-level modeling techniques with low-level programming in order to go beyond WIMP user interfaces.

The likelihood of partner physical aggression on days of male partners' alcohol consumption, during a 5-month period, was examined for men entering a domestic violence treatment program (n = 137) and domestically violent men entering an alcoholism treatment program (n = 135). For men entering the domestic violence treatment program (alcoholism treatment program odds in parentheses), the odds of any male-to-female physical aggression were more than 8 times (11 times) higher on days when men drank than on days of no alcohol consumption. The odds of severe male-to-female physical aggression were more than 11 times (11 times) higher on days of men's drinking than on days of no drinking. These findings support the proximal effect model of alcohol use and partner violence.

Scholars need to keep up with an exponentially increasing flood of scientific papers. To aid this challenge, we introduce Scim, a novel intelligent interface that helps experienced researchers skim – or rapidly review – a paper to attain a cursory understanding of its contents. Scim supports the skimming process by highlighting salient paper contents in order to direct a reader's attention. The system's highlights are faceted by content type, evenly distributed across a paper, and have a density configurable by readers at both the global and local level. We evaluate Scim with both an in-lab usability study and a longitudinal diary study, revealing how its highlights facilitate the more efficient construction of a conceptualization of a paper. We conclude by discussing design considerations and tensions for the design of future intelligent skimming tools.

A longitudinal diary study on the formation of two young girls’ individual language systems was carried out. In both cases, the general language ability was tracked by considering its key components, including the phonetic, lexical, morphological, and syntactic ones, as well as imitation skills and early metalinguistic awareness. The relation between these components (autonomy or mutual influence) was examined. The MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) were used as an auxiliary tool. The findings of the two case studies were compared with the published results of a systemic analysis based on the extensive MacArthur–Bates-CDI database on various components of general language ability. The comparisons revealed shared and individual language acquisition patterns in the early stages of speech ontogenesis. The obtained data are consistent with those reported in previous research: in the early stage of language acquisition, the speech of the girls was marked by an interaction between the phonetic (articulation of complex three- or four-syllable words), lexical (vocabulary growth), and morphological (learning grammatical categories) components, while the syntactic component progressed relatively autonomously; and then, during the later stage, morphological skills served more as a supportive mechanism that facilitated the construction of grammatically accurate syntactic structures.

Scholars need to keep up with an exponentially increasing flood of scientific papers. To aid this challenge, we introduce Scim , a novel intelligent interface that helps scholars skim papers to rapidly review and gain a cursory understanding of its contents. Scim supports the skimming process by highlighting salient content within a paper, directing a scholar’s attention. These automatically-extracted highlights are faceted by content type, evenly-distributed across a paper, and have a density configurable by scholars. We evaluate Scim with an in-lab usability study and a longitudinal diary study, revealing how its highlights facilitate the more efficient construction of a conceptualization of a paper. Finally, we describe the process of scaling highlights from their conception within Scim , a research prototype, to production on over 521,000 papers within the Semantic Reader, a publicly-available augmented reading interface for scientific papers. We conclude by discussing design considerations and tensions for the design of future skimming tools with augmented intelligence.

To ensure the quality of its shared knowledge, Stack Overflow encourages users to revise answers through a badge system, which is based on quantitative measures (e.g., a badge is awarded after revising more than 500 answers). Prior studies show that badges can positively steer the user behavior on Stack Overflow (e.g., increasing user participation). However, little is known whether revision-related badges have a negative impact on the quality of revisions since some studies show that certain users may game incentive systems to gain rewards. In this study, we analyze 3,871,966 revision records that are collected from 2,377,692 Stack Overflow answers. We find that: 1) Users performed a much larger than usual revisions on the badge-awarding days compared to normal days; 25% of the users did not make any more revisions once they received their first revision-related badge. 2) Performing more revisions than usual in a single day increased the likelihood of such revisions being rolled back (e.g., due to undesired or incorrect revisions). 3) Users were more likely to perform text and small revisions if they performed many revisions in a single day. Our findings are concurred by the Stack Overflow community, and they highlight the need for changes to the current badge system in order to provide a better balance between the quality and quantity of revisions.

Ubiquitous computing involves computers and technology that blend seamlessly into day to day living. In this way, the real and digital worlds have joined, offering interaction mechanisms which are more natural and tangible. However, the diversity of end-users has increased, that is, end-users have a wide range of skills, knowledge, disabilities, literacy, and so on. The first challenge is how the designer distributes the interfaces/information around the environment without overwhelming the user. The second is how to motivate and guide the user around the MDE (Multi-Device Environment) without distracting attention away from the task or the main objective. Taking into account that Tangible Interaction is more familiar and easier to learn for users without prior technology experience, we have developed and evaluated four prototypes. They are based on MDE games and Distributed and Tangible User Interfaces. Interfaces are distributed on devices and objects which offer tangible interaction with the user (with smart objects). After assessing the prototypes, 8 guidelines have been proposed based on the lessons learned. The aim is to provide a guide to design and to investigate Multi-Device Environments based on tangible interaction. 8 guidelines have been detailed in order to contribute to the design of the three interrelated elements: 1. real/space/interface distribution; 2. multi-user/collaborative tasks; 3. motivation/engagement interaction.

Recent technological evolution has enabled environments accessible through a wide variety of interactive devices. Such devices can differ also in terms of interaction modality. In this paper we show how it is possible to generate multi-modal interfaces for different platforms starting with logical user interface descriptions. This approach simplifies the development of applications that can be accessed through a variety of interactive devices and modalities.

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.