Distributing user interfaces. 4th Distributed User Interfaces Workshop on 14th International Conference on Web Engineering ICWE 2014

Distributing User Interfaces

4th Workshop on Distributed User Interfaces and Multimodal Interaction

14th International Conference on Web Engineering ICWE 2014Prof. Dr. Ricardo Tesoriero

ISE Research GroupUniversity of Castilla-La Mancha

Index

Introduction

Motivation

Characterizing the Distribution of User Interfaces.

User Interface Distribution Capabilities

User Interface Distribution States

Proxywork

Proxywork Distribution Primitives

Conclusions

Future Work. Open Issues

Why distributing user interfaces is important?Motivation

User interfacesMulti-purpose mobile devices

User interfacesMulti-purpose stationary devices

User interfaces Specific devices

User Interface EcoSystems

See on device

Notification

User interface

L. Terrenghi, A. Quigley y A. Dix, «A taxonomy for and analysis of multi-person-display ecosystems,» Personal Ubiquitous Comput., vol. 13, nº 8, pp. 583-598, 2009.

Distributed User Interfaces vs.

Distributing User InterfacesThe User Interface Distribution Dichotomy

Case 1: Distributing the article section of the Web Page

Imagine this scenario…

Suppose that you are browsing information on the Internet using your Smartphone

You go to your favorite Web Site and you start reading an interesting article while you are on the bus, train or metro on your way home

Case 1: Distributing the article section of the Web Page

When you arrive home you find your flatmates watching the Smart TV

As you tell them about the article you have read, they suddenly got interested in it.

Case 1: Distributing the article section of the Web Page

To quickly share this information with them, you “transfer” the article from the Smartphone to the SmartTV

You DISTRIBUTE the article section of

the Web page from the Smartphone to

the Smart TV

Case 2: Distributing a menu section of a Web Page

You are projecting a Web page on the Wall to show event participants information

You use the laptop keyboard and pad to get the information

Case 2: Distributing a menu section of a Web Page

As you want to control pages to be displayed by the projector remotely, you “transfer” the menu section to the Smartphone

Case 3: Continuity You are filling a Web form using your Laptop, but you have to catch

the train!

“Transfer” (Distribute) the Web form of the Web Page to the Smartphone (including the information you have already entered when using the Laptop)

Characterization of the User Interface Distribution

How do we describe these characteristics on an Ecosystem of User Interfaces?

There are many models to describe the User Interface. However, most of them (i.e. AUI Model of the CRF or IFML) employ a Tree based structure where Interaction Objects have a single parent, if any (root).

How can we characterize the user interface distribution if a component can be hosted by more than one container?

G. Calvary, J. Coutaz, L. Bouillon, M. Florins, Q. Limbourg, L. Marucci, F. Paternò, C. Santoro, N. Souchon, D. Thevenin y J. Vanderdonckt, «The CAMELEON reference framework,» Deliverable 1.1, CAMELEON Project, 03 Septiembre 2002. [On Line]. Available: http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/model-based-ui/wiki/Cameleon_reference_framework. [last access: 12/06/13].

OMG. IFML: The Interaction Flow Modeling Language. URL= http://www.ifml.org/

How can we characterize the distribution capabilities of user interfaces?

Metamodel defined in ECOREenriched with OCL

Pedro G. Villanueva, Ricardo Tesoriero, José A. Gallud. Revisiting the Concept of Distributed User Interfaces. Distributed User Interfaces: Usability and Collaboration. Springer.Human–Computer Interaction Series 2013, ISBN 978-1-4471-5499-0, pp 1-15.

Graphical UI Distribution Model Editor

• Technology• Eclipse Plugin• EMF• GMF

• Characteristics• Graphical DSL • Model Validation• UI Distribution

Capabilities

Video

Platform

The combination of Hardware and OS that supports the user interface

Tables / Smart phone running Android or iOS

Laptops running Windows or Linux

Etc.

What about the Web?

The Web Browser is considered as part of the platform

Two Web Browsers running in the same machine are two different platforms

Two Web Browser Tabs (even in separate Windows) are the same platform

What about multiple monitors

Monitors are considered devices that are connected to the same platform

N monitors connected to the same computer belong to a single platform

Interaction object

The Interaction Object plays the same role as the Abstract Interaction Object defined by the Cameleon framework.

On concrete implementations they may play the role of Windows, Panels, Text Fields, Buttons, etc.

J. M. Vanderdonckt y F. Bodart, «Encapsulating knowledge for intelligent automatic interaction objects selection,» de INTERACT '93 and CHI '93 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Amsterdam, 1993.

G. Calvary, J. Coutaz, L. Bouillon, M. Florins, Q. Limbourg, L. Marucci, F. Paternò, C. Santoro, N. Souchon, D. Thevenin y J. Vanderdonckt, «The CAMELEON reference framework,» Deliverable 1.1, CAMELEON Project, 03 Septiembre 2002. [On Line]. Available: http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/model-based-ui/wiki/Cameleon_reference_framework. [last access: 12/06/13].

Hosting

Defines a relationship between two Interaction Objects (Host and Guest)

It represents that the Guest Interaction Object can be hosted in the Host Interaction Object during the execution of the User Interface

A Guest Interaction Object can be hosted in more than one Host Interaction Object

All Guest Interaction Objects must be hosted in at least one Host Interaction Object during the User Interface lifetime.

The host may change during the User Interface lifetime

Interaction ContainerInteraction Component

The Hosting relationship defines Interaction Objects as

Interaction Containers

Panels, Layouts, Menus, Submenus, Tables, etc.

Interaction Components

Buttons, Labels, Entry Fields, Menu Items, RFID Tags

If an Interaction Object does not host any Interaction Object then it is an Interaction Component

If an Interaction Object hosts another Interaction Object then it “mutates” into an Interaction Container

Both Interaction Components and Interaction Container must be contained in another Interaction Object

ImplementationInteraction Surface

Defines a relationship between an Interaction Container and a Platform

It represents that the Interaction Container is supported by a Platform

An Interaction Container is implemented by at most one Platform

An Interaction Container which is implemented by Platform “mutates” into an Interaction Surface

An Interaction Surface might not be hosted on any other Interaction Object.

Windows, Activities, RFID Panels, Pages, Views

Interaction dependency

Defines a relationship between two Interaction Surfaces (Master and Slave)

It represents that the lifetime of the Slave Interaction Surface depends on the lifetime of the Master Interaction Surface

Floating Toolbars depend on the Main Window

Paint .NETInteraction Components

Paint .NETInteraction Containers and Hostings

Paint .NETPlatforms, Implementations, Interaction Surfaces and Interaction Dependencies

User Interface Distribution Capabilities

Divisible

A UI System is Divisible iff exists an Interaction Object that can be hosted on more than one Interaction Surface

Distributable

A UI System is Distributable iff exists at least one Interaction Object that can be hosted on at least two Interaction Surfaces implemented on different Platforms

User Interface Distribution States

We define the User Interface Distribution State as the organization of all the Interaction Objects that are part of a UI System at a given instant in time.

Unified State: A UISystem reaches the Unified State iff all Interaction Objects are hosted on the same Interaction Surface at a given time

Divided State: A UISystem reaches the Divided State iff it has at least two Interaction Surfaces which host at least one Interaction Object each at a given time.

Distributed State: A UI System reaches the Distributed State iff it defines at least two Interaction Surfaces that are hosted on different Platforms. As Interaction Surfaces are Interaction Contaners, they host at least one Interaction Component each at a given time.

Single Platform State: A UI System reaches the Single Platform State iff it all Interaction Objects that are part of the UI System are hosted on the a set of Interaction Surfaces that share the same Platform.

Reflexive UI Distribution Model Editor

Video

Quiz

Capabilities Divisible Distributable

Distribution States Unified Divided Single Platform Distributed

M. Manca y F. Paternò, «Distributed User Interfaces with MARIA,» de Distributed User Interfaces 2011 (DUI 2011), CHI 2011 Workshop, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2011.

Paint .NET Capabilities

Divisible Distributable

Distribution States Unified Divided Single Platform Distributed

GIMP 2.7

Capabilities Divisible Distributable

Distribution States Unified Divided Single Platform Distributed

WallShare

Capabilities Divisible Distributable

Distribution States Unified Divided Single Platform Distributed

!

Pedro González Villanueva, Ricardo Tesoriero, José A. Gallud: Multi-pointer and collaborative system for mobile devices. Mobile HCI 2010: 435-438.

Pedro González Villanueva, José A. Gallud, Ricardo Tesoriero: WallShare: a multi-pointer system for portable devices. AVI 2010: 416

RFID Panels Capabilities

Divisible Distributable

Distribution States Unified Divided Single Platform Distributed

Ricardo Tesoriero, Pedro G. Villanueva, Habib Moussa Fardoun, Gabriel Sebastian. “Distributed User Interfaces in Public Spaces using RFID-based Panels”. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. ISSN: 1071-5819. Volume 72. Issue 1. Pages: 111–125. January 2014.

Pedro G. Villanueva, Ricardo Tesoriero, José A. Gallud, Abdulrahman H. Altalhi. “A Framework to Develop Web Applications Based on RFID Panels”. International Journal of Universal Computer Science. ISSN: 0948-695x. Volume 19. Issue 12. Pages: 1792-1807. June 2013.

!

Think about it…

Keep thinking …

See on device

Notification

User interface

IF Distributed UI is an StateAND

IF Distributable is a CapabilityTHEN

DUI ≠ DeUI

Therefore, when we talk about Distributed User Interfaces, we are really talking about Distributable User Interfaces!

Proxywork : Distributable User Interfaces for the Web

Proxywork allows users to distribute the user interface components of Web applications among a set of displays.

The distribution is controlled by the user through a set of primitives (i.e. show, hide, copy, move, etc.) attached to Web page components.

These primitives are automatically attached to Web page components on runtime by the Proxywork Web proxy.

Therefore, Web pages do not require any extra information to be distributed among different displays. Pedro González Villanueva, Ricardo Tesoriero and José.

A. Gallud. Distributing web components in a display ecosystem using Proxywork. BCS-HCI '13. Proceedings of the 27th International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference, Brunel University, London, UK, 9-13 September 2013, art. 28. URL=http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2578048

Pedro González Villanueva. Distributable User Interfaces. PhD Thesis. University of Castilla-La Mancha. 2014

Proxywork Primitives

Connect / Disconnect (Device)

Rename

Clone

Copy

Migrate

Video

Copy Clone Migrate

Proxywork Limitations

The Web page should be “well formed”

Although Proxywork is able to distribute any component; the distribution is limited to specific Tags (DIVs)

HTTPS

User Interface Adaptation

Cross domain communication

Etc.

Conclusions

Defines a metamodel to characterize the distribution of User Interfaces

Graphical Model Editor to build and validate User Interface Distribution models

Reflexive Model Editor that characterizes User Interfaces

Set the difference between User Interface capabilities and states to redefine the DUI concept as DeUI

Proxywork transforms Web Pages into Distributable User Interfaces

Future Work

Distributable User Interfaces and Task modeling

Adapting Distributable User Interfaces

Controlling Distributable User Interfaces

Etc.

Thank you!

Ricardo Tesoriero [email protected]

José A. Gallud [email protected]

Pedro González Villanueva [email protected]