Designing interactive systems in context: from prototype to deployment, in people and computers XIX - the bigger picture

Abstract

A user s physical and virtual environments are becoming increasingly interwoven. Without realizing it, mobile and embedded devices have become more the rule than the exception: many present-day users are inexperienced when it comes to traditional computers, but are in daily contact with computerized systems. The increasing diversity of all kinds of devices, together with the possibilities of running arbitrary software autonomously, result in a thousand-and-one potential areas of use, whether mobile or not. The possibility of communicating with the (in)direct environment using other devices and observing that same environment allow us to develop ambient intelligent applications which have knowledge of the environment and of the use of these applications. Despite the support for software development for this kind of application, some gaps still exist, making the creation of consistent, usable user interfaces more difficult. This paper discusses a technique that can be integrated into existing models and architectures and that supports the interface designer in making consistent context-sensitive user interfaces. We present an architecture and methodology that allows context information to be used at two different levels dialog and interdialog levels and ensures that the consistency of the interface is always maintained in the event of context changes during use of the software.