A Model-Based Approach for Distributed User Interfaces

This paper describes a model-based approach for designing distributed user interfaces (DUIs), i.e. graphical user interfaces that are distributed along one or many of the following dimensions: end user, display device, computing platform, and physical environment. The three pillars of this model-based approach are: (i) a Concrete User Interface model for DUIs incorporating the distribution dimensions and able to express in a XML-compliant format any DUI element until the granularity of an individual DUI element is reached, (ii) a specification language for DUI distribution primitives that have been defined in a user interface toolkit, and (iii), a step-wise method for modeling a DUI based on the concepts of distribution graph expressing a distribution scenario that can be played namely based on the distribution primitives. A distribution graph consists of a statetransition diagram whose states represent significant distribution states of a DUI and whose transitions are labeled by an even-condition-action representation. The actions involved in this format may call any distribution primitive of the DUI toolkit. In order to exemplify this model-based approach, two simple DUIs are first designed: a DUI for the Pictionary game and a DUI for the Minesweeper game. They are then incorporated into a larger DUI game of the goose where cells may trigger the two other games.
EICS
ACM Press, New York
Proc. of 3rd ACM Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems
2011
11-20