Modeling multi-level context influence on the user interface

Abstract

With the increasing availability of mobile devices and their usage by many different kinds of users, the context used by an application on this kind of device, in no longer static. The changes in context can have different kinds of impact on the user interface. In this paper, we refine our earlier work on the specification of context information and its effects within the task model, a model that is used in the earliest stages in the design of interactive applications. We define the different levels on which context can influence the user interface and how the influence on several levels can be represented in the task model. The details are discussed using a case study.