UsiXML for OpenInterface

• Aims and goals
  In the context of Open Interface project, the UsiXML language is currently evolving in order to encompass full multimodal user interfaces so that they are compliant with the tools produced by the OpenInterface platform and to go beyond multimodal web user interfaces which have been addressed so far. Therefore, the goal of this project consists in extending the UsiXML language (www.usixml.org) with new functionalities that explicitly address the behavioural features required by the dynamic aspects of multimodal user interfaces, whether they are web oriented or not. For this purpose, a real-world large-scale case study is investigated to as to test the specification of multimodal user interfaces corresponding to the same tasks, but with different modalities, single or combined.


• Methodology
  A. Domain and Tasks
  This research will be pursued in the area of large scale images which found their utility nowadays in an increasing number of public and private services (e.g., army, agriculture, tourist city maps).
  While the normal scale images can be displayed entirely on the PC screen surface, large scale images have to be displayed only by small portions making the user visualization more difficult. This drawback is overcome thanks to navigational features associated to the image.
  In the context of navigational tasks over large scale images we conduct our research based on a first case study which considers an application enabling users to easily navigate over large scale. Based on a survey of the current state of the art we consider the following navigational tasks: Translation and Scale.
  
  B. Interaction modalities
  The interaction modalities taken into account in order to achieve these tasks are: Graphical (keyboard, mouse), Vocal (speech recognition), Tactile (finger touch), Multimodal (any combination of the above specified modalities).

The schema illustrated bellow describes the path followed in order to reach
the above mentioned goal:

• Multimodal Open Interface Applications are abstracted into UsiXML specification language
  
• A set of Usability evaluation tests are conducted upon the Open Interface Applications
  
• The results of the Usability evaluation tests are abstracted into a set of multimodal ergonomic rules
  
• An usability adviser tool checks the ergonomic rules upon the UsiXML specification and ensures a certain level of guidance during the development process of multimodal applications.

Contact
Adrian Stanciulescu, Ph.D. researcher, Unit of Information Systems, School of Management, University of Louvain, Belgium.