New ways of interaction between users and their computing devices has revealed that users are not only interested in sharing their data, but their user interfaces as well. This calls for an extension of the traditional notion of user interfaces, to a notion where user interfaces span over multiple devices: Distributed User Interfaces (DUIs). The purpose of this thesis is to identify challenges in developing Web based DUIs, and the result is a JavaScript library that aids the development of these types of interfaces. The development has been driven in an explorative fashion, to discover techniques that is appropriate to use, when moving ideas from existing DUI frameworks for the desktop, to the Web. Soundness of the implementation has been evaluated by measuring properties of the library source code that indicates maintainability and extensibility. The conclusion is that the library has the potential of answering the needs for future DUI development targeting the Web.

Mobile devices equipped with features (e.g., camera, network connectivity and media player) are increasingly being used for different tasks such as web browsing, document reading and photography. While the portability of mobile devices makes them desirable for pervasive access to information, their small screen real-estate often imposes restrictions on the amount of information that can be displayed and manipulated on them. On the other hand, large displays have become commonplace in many outdoor as well as indoor environments. While they provide an efficient way of presenting and disseminating information, they provide little support for digital interactivity or physical accessibility. Researchers argue that mobile phones provide an efficient and portable way of interacting with large displays, and the latter can overcome the limitations of the small screens of mobile devices by providing a larger presentation and interaction space. However, distributing user interface (UI) elements across a mobile device and a large display can cause switching of visual attention and that may affect task performance. This thesis specifically explores how the switching of visual attention across a handheld mobile device and a vertical large display can affect a single user's task performance during mobile interaction with large displays. It introduces a taxonomy based on the factors associated with the visual arrangement of Multi Display User Interfaces (MDUIs) that can influence visual attention switching during interaction with MDUIs. It presents an empirical analysis of the effects of different distributions of input and output across mobile and large displays on the user's task performance, subjective workload and preference in the multiple-widget selection task, and in visual search tasks with maps, texts and photos. Experimental results show that the selection of multiple widgets replicated on the mobile device as well as on the large display, versus those shown only on the large display, is faster despite the cost of initial attention switching in the former. On the other hand, a hybrid UI configuration where the visual output is distributed across the mobile and large displays is the worst, or equivalent to the worst, configuration in all the visual search tasks. A mobile device-controlled large display configuration performs best in the map search task and equal to best (i.e., tied with a mobile-only configuration) in text- and photo-search tasks.

Human computer interaction is a topic which is quickly progressing forwards, with users looking for new ways to interact with digital content. Graphical user interfaces are all around us, featured in smartphones, tablets, and personal computers. The next step from a graphical user interface, a distributed user interface is becoming increasingly popular, and is offered by many applications, such as Spotify for example. This bachelor's thesis carried out at the University of Linköping at the institution for computer science discusses the history of human computer interaction, user interaction and interfaces, and how to manage the layout of a disturbed user interface system. A framework for managing the layout is developed and tested in a prototype.

O número de dispositivos conectados e presentes na vida dos usuários é expressivo e a realização de atividades utilizando múltiplos dispositivos já é uma realidade. Entretanto, o uso integrado e sinérgico desses recursos, a que se denomina interação distribuída, tem encontrado empecilhos nas limitações dos sistemas em prover e atender interações dos usuários que atravessem as fronteiras do dispositivo. A diversidade de plataformas, bem como das áreas de pesquisa envolvidas são também forças contrárias à interação distribuída. O objetivo desta pesquisa, portanto, está em definir uma arquitetura que facilite a construção de aplicações observando aspectos de uma interação distribuída, na qual usuário e dispositivo não se acoplem unicamente no modelo de interação 1 usuário:1 dispositivo. Definiu-se uma arquitetura orientada a serviço, após pesquisa exploratória e sistemática acerca de frameworks e middlewares que promovem a integração entre dispositivos, e verificou-se sua viabilidade por provas de conceito. Como resultados, obteve-se um padrão de transições necessários para a construção de diversos cenários de uso e uma arquitetura orientada a serviços P2P dirigida a eventos que permite a implementação e execução desses cenários. / The number of connected devices and present in the lives of users is currently expressive and performing activities using multiple devices is already a reality. However, the integrated and synergistic use of these resources, which is called distributed interaction, has found obstacles in the limitations of current systems to provide and attend user interactions that cross the boundaries of the device. A variety of platforms, also involved research areas are contrary forces to the distributed interaction too. The aim of this research is therefore to define an architecture that facilitates the building of applications observing aspects of a distributed interaction, where user and device does not only bind in the interaction model 1 user:1 device. A service-oriented architecture has been defined, after exploratory and systematic research about frameworks and middlewares that promote integration among devices, and its feasibility has been verified by proofs of concept. As a result, we have obtained a pattern of transitions necessary for the construction of various usage scenarios and a P2P event-driven service-oriented architecture that allows implementation and execution of these scenarios.

O aumento no número de dispositivos móveis de alto desempenho e a disponibilidade de conexões sem fio permitiram o desenvolvimento de interfaces que são compartilhadas entre diversos dispositivos; tais interfaces são chamadas de Interfaces Distribuídas de Usuários. Esta pesquisa foca no desenvolvimento de um arcabouço que visa simplificar o desenvolvimento de jogos digitais que utilizem interfaces distribuídas, assim como analisar o atual estado da arte de outras tecnologias e arcabouços. É proposto um estudo de aceitação, utilizando parâmetros quantitativos e qualitativos, afim de comprovar as características necessárias para uma experiência fluída para o usuário. Tal tarefa é analisada através da criação de um jogo protótipo onde diversos jogadores podem jogar juntos e compartilhar informações entre diversos dispositivos. / The increasing number of high-end mobile devices and increased connection availability have allowed on the development of interfaces that can be shared between multiple devices; such interfaces are called Distributed User Interfaces. This research aims the development of a framework to simplify the development of games using distributed interfaces, as well as to assay the current state-of-art of technologies and frameworks. We propose a study of the acceptance, using both qualitative and quantitative parameters, in order to verify compliance with the necessary characteristics for a fluid user experience. This is accomplished through the creation of a prototype game in which several players can play together and share information through many devices.

O número de dispositivos conectados e presentes na vida dos usuários é expressivo e a realização de atividades utilizando múltiplos dispositivos já é uma realidade. Entretanto, o uso integrado e sinérgico desses recursos, a que se denomina interação distribuída, tem encontrado empecilhos nas limitações dos sistemas em prover e atender interações dos usuários que atravessem as fronteiras do dispositivo. A diversidade de plataformas, bem como das áreas de pesquisa envolvidas são também forças contrárias à interação distribuída. O objetivo desta pesquisa, portanto, está em definir uma arquitetura que facilite a construção de aplicações observando aspectos de uma interação distribuída, na qual usuário e dispositivo não se acoplem unicamente no modelo de interação 1 usuário:1 dispositivo. Definiu-se uma arquitetura orientada a serviço, após pesquisa exploratória e sistemática acerca de frameworks e middlewares que promovem a integração entre dispositivos, e verificou-se sua viabilidade por provas de conceito. Como resultados, obteve-se um padrão de transições necessários para a construção de diversos cenários de uso e uma arquitetura orientada a serviços P2P dirigida a eventos que permite a implementação e execução desses cenários. / The number of connected devices and present in the lives of users is currently expressive and performing activities using multiple devices is already a reality. However, the integrated and synergistic use of these resources, which is called distributed interaction, has found obstacles in the limitations of current systems to provide and attend user interactions that cross the boundaries of the device. A variety of platforms, also involved research areas are contrary forces to the distributed interaction too. The aim of this research is therefore to define an architecture that facilitates the building of applications observing aspects of a distributed interaction, where user and device does not only bind in the interaction model 1 user:1 device. A service-oriented architecture has been defined, after exploratory and systematic research about frameworks and middlewares that promote integration among devices, and its feasibility has been verified by proofs of concept. As a result, we have obtained a pattern of transitions necessary for the construction of various usage scenarios and a P2P event-driven service-oriented architecture that allows implementation and execution of these scenarios.

O aumento no número de dispositivos móveis de alto desempenho e a disponibilidade de conexões sem fio permitiram o desenvolvimento de interfaces que são compartilhadas entre diversos dispositivos; tais interfaces são chamadas de Interfaces Distribuídas de Usuários. Esta pesquisa foca no desenvolvimento de um arcabouço que visa simplificar o desenvolvimento de jogos digitais que utilizem interfaces distribuídas, assim como analisar o atual estado da arte de outras tecnologias e arcabouços. É proposto um estudo de aceitação, utilizando parâmetros quantitativos e qualitativos, afim de comprovar as características necessárias para uma experiência fluída para o usuário. Tal tarefa é analisada através da criação de um jogo protótipo onde diversos jogadores podem jogar juntos e compartilhar informações entre diversos dispositivos. / The increasing number of high-end mobile devices and increased connection availability have allowed on the development of interfaces that can be shared between multiple devices; such interfaces are called Distributed User Interfaces. This research aims the development of a framework to simplify the development of games using distributed interfaces, as well as to assay the current state-of-art of technologies and frameworks. We propose a study of the acceptance, using both qualitative and quantitative parameters, in order to verify compliance with the necessary characteristics for a fluid user experience. This is accomplished through the creation of a prototype game in which several players can play together and share information through many devices.

In this paper, design decisions to improve usability in APIs for implementations of DUI applications has been investigated. Namely what abstractions an API like that should provide to the programmer, and how those abstractions should be presented syntax-wise to the programmer in the API. The exploration was done with a literature study, development of a game prototype with a DUI API, and three user sessions where an interview, and a sketch task was done with the participating developers.