The main goal of this research is to facilitate end-user and expert developer collaboration in the creation of a web application. This research created a reverse engineering toolset and integrated it with Click (Component-based Lightweight Internet-application Construction Kit), an end-user web development tool. The toolset generates artifacts to facilitate collaboration between end-users and expert web developers when the end-users need to go beyond the limited capabilities of Click. By supporting smooth transition of workflow to expert web developers, we can help them in implementing advanced functionality in end-user developed web applications. The four artifacts generated include a sitemap, text documentation, a task model, and a canonical representation of the user interface. The sitemap is automatically generated to support the workflow of web developers. The text documentation of a web application is generated to document data representation and business logic. A task model, expressed using ConcurTaskTrees notation, covers the whole interaction specified by the end-user. A presentation and dialog model, represented in User Interface Markup Language (UIML), describe the user interface in a declarative language. The task model and UIML representation are created to support development of multi-platform user interfaces from an end-user web application. A formative evaluation of the usability of these models and representations with experienced web developers revealed that these representations were useful and easy to understand. / Master of Science

The increasing popularity of the World Wide Web (WWW) has created a new market: Web access through television to accommodate those who either cannot afford existing hardware or are intimidated by computers. Current efforts to combine the WWW and television have targeted potential novice users. One of the approaches for creating a WWW browsing system that is both simple to use and inexpensive is the utilization of the existing cable system to provide Web access through television. Some unique characteristics of this browsing system are fast access to the Web, the use of nine buttons on a universal remote control, and an index structure for reaching Web sites. Since browsing the Web through television is relatively new, many interface issues need to be examined. The purpose of this research was to investigate potential user interface designs for this WWW browser and to evaluate the usability of the nine-button interface. Sixteen volunteers participated in the experiment and were asked to navigate to specific Web sites with two interface formats, five different system lag times (0.2, 0.7, 1.3, 2.0, and 3.0 seconds), and three feedback styles (active feedback, passive feedback and no feedback). Participants were prescreened for their experience with computers and browsing the Web. The experiment was conducted in a living room setting to simulate real life situations and participants were given a total of 42 tasks to complete throughout the experiment. Each task consisted of navigating through the tree structure with either one of the two interface formats until reaching a designated Web site. The number of errors committed and task completion times were recorded. In addition, participants were asked to rate the WWW browser system after each task as well as after the entire experiment. Participants preferred the 0.2 second system lag and the active feedback style. Overall, they committed fewer errors and took less time to complete tasks with the tabbing interface than with the one-to-one mapping interface. Experienced participants committed more errors than did the inexperienced ones. Increase of system lag time was determined to have a greater adverse effect on the tabbing interface than on the one-to-one mapping interface. / Master of Science

Commercial buildings consume more than 40% of the total energy consumption in the United States. Almost 90% of these buildings are small- and medium-sized buildings that do not have a Building Energy Management (BEM) system. The reasons behind this are – lack of awareness, unavailability of inexpensive packaged solutions, and disincentive to invest in a BEM system if the tenant is not the owner. Several open source tools and technologies have emerged recently that can be used for building automation and energy management. However, none of these systems is turnkey and deployment ready. They also lack consistent and intuitive navigation, security, and performance required for a BEM system. The overall project - of which this thesis research is a part - addresses the design and implementation of an open source secure web based user platform to monitor, schedule, control, and perform functions needed for a BEM system serving small and medium-size buildings. The focus of this work are: principles of intuitive graphical user interface design, abstracting device functions into a comprehensive data model, identifying threats and vulnerabilities, and implementing a security framework for the web platform. Monitor and control solutions for devices such as load controllers and sensors are abstracted and their decentralized control strategies are proposed and implemented using an open source robust scalable user platform accessible locally and remotely. The user platform is open-source, scalable, provides role-based access, dynamic, and modular in design. The comprehensive data model includes a user management model, device model, session model, and a scheduling model. The data model is designed to be flexible, robust and can be extended for any new device type. Security risks are analyzed using a threat model to identify security goals. The proposed security framework includes user authentication, device approval, role-based access, secure information exchange protocols, and web platform security. Performance of the user interface platform is evaluated for responsiveness in different screen sizes, page response times, throughput, and the performance of client side entities. / Master of Science

User interface design and development for ubiquitous software applications is challenged by the presence of varying contexts. Context comprises of user'­s computing platform, the environment in which the user is interacting with the application and user characteristics which comprise of user's behavior during interaction and user preferences for interface display and interaction. We present a framework for adaptive user interface generation where adaptation occurs when context changes. This framework introduces three new concepts. First, formalization for representing context is introduced. Our design of context specification is unique since it reflects the association of context with level and nature of user interface adaptation. Secondly, user interface generation life cycle is studied and we define a context model on top of task model to introduce the contextual conditions into user interface generation process. Using the context model, user interface designer can specify contextual requirements and its effect on the user interface. Third, context aware adaptation of user interfaces is achieved by mapping context specifications to various levels of user interface generation life cycle. We designed a specification language called rule specification using which the user interface designer can specify the mapping. With the new design of context representation, context model, and rule specification, we demonstrate how changes in contexts adapts task model which in turn adapts the user interface. / Master of Science

The integration of devices within cars is continuously evolving, enabling us to interact with them to an increasingly greater extent. This has transformed the way we drive, communicate and access information on the go. Despite this, there is a lack of research on how to guarantee driver safety while interacting with these systems, especially when looking at in-car systems used in professional settings as a work tool. This master's thesis was conducted in collaboration with NIRA Dynamics and aimed to investigate how the interface of in-car touch screen work tools can be designed to ensure usability and safety for the driver. The study included development of a prototype in the form of a new touch screen interface for a data acquisition system which was used by NIRAs test drivers for the purpose of testing their products. The prototype design was developed iteratively based on the test drivers' opinions as well as theory about important design aspects related to designing in-vehicle systems for high safety and usability. The resulting prototype was evaluated using the System Usability Scale in order to compare the prototype to the original system design and asses to what extent the new interface contributed to increased safety for the driver. The study revealed that some of the main issues that needed to be taken into account in the prototype design were prioritization of information, placement and gathering of elements and reduced amount clicks and scrolling. The final usability evaluation was conducted through user tests and the results indicated that the usability of the prototype was higher than for the original system design, thereby indicating an increased safety for the driver. Overall, this thesis contributes to the research on mitigating the risks of drivers related to interaction with in-car software systems.

Das Ziel des ServFace Projektes ist es Endnutzern ohne umfangreiche IT-Kenntnisse das einfache Erstellen von servicebasierten Anwendungen zu ermöglichen. Dazu wird ein Kompositions- werkzeug mit dem Namen “ServFace Builder“ verwendet. Das Werkzeug erlaubt es Endnutzern, interaktive Anwendungen durch die Komposition von Service-Operationen zu erstellen. Dafür ist eine grafische Repräsentation der Service-Operationen durch UI-Fragmente notwendig. Die UI-Fragmente werden im ServFace-Umfeld als Frontends bezeichnet. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird ein Konzept zur automatischen Visualisierung dieser Frontends vorgestellt. Um das Ergebnis der Visualisierung zu verbessern, nutzt der Visualisierungsprozess neben der Service-Beschreibung weitere Informationen in Form von Annotationen und Gestaltungsempfehlungen. Konkret werden die folgenden Aspekte in dieser Arbeit beschrieben: • Visualisierung von Frontends zur Repräsentation von Service-Operationen auf Basis von Service-Beschreibungen, Annotationen, Plattformspezifikationen und Gestaltungsempfehlungen unter der Maßgabe der Gebrauchstauglichkeit und Nutzbarkeit. • Integration der Frontends in die jeweils aktuelle Instanzen des gegebenen Anwendungsmodells. • Technische Umsetzung und Evaluation der entwickelten Konzepte / The aim of the ServFace Project is to enable users with limited IT skills to easily create service-based applications. In order to do so, a tool called "ServFace Builder" has been developed. This tool allows users to build a composite application by combining several service operations. An important part of the ServFace Builder is the graphical representation of those service operations through user interfaces. This thesis describes an approach to automatically generate user interfaces for service operations. To enhance the graphical representation, the user interface generation process of the ServFace Builder comprises annotations and design recommendations next to the common service descriptions to enhance the result of the generation process. This thesis discusses: • Graphical representation of service operations on the basis of service descriptions, annotations, plattform specifications and design recommendations. • Integration of the graphical representation into the actual instance of the given application model. • Implementation and evaluation of the presented concepts.

<body>Users require flexibility when interacting with information systems to contend with changing business processes and to support diverse workflow. Model-based user interface design can accommodate flexible business processes by integrating workflow modelling with other modelling approaches. We present a workflow model, the progression model, to help in developing systems that support flexible business processes. <p> The progression model tracks a users interaction with an application as a set of data elements we refer to as a workflow transaction. The steps a user takes to create a workflow transaction and the state of the workflow transaction at each step is made explicit. By making the workflow status and workflow transaction state explicit, the user can change the order of the steps in a process, manage multiple workflow transactions, keep track of data as it is accumulated, and so on. The intent is to provide the user with a mechanism to deal with partial information, interrupted and concurrent workflow transaction entry, and the processing of multiple workflow transactions. <p> This thesis describes the progression model, an XML-compliant notation to specify the progression model, and a prototype system. </body>

<body>Users require flexibility when interacting with information systems to contend with changing business processes and to support diverse workflow. Model-based user interface design can accommodate flexible business processes by integrating workflow modelling with other modelling approaches. We present a workflow model, the progression model, to help in developing systems that support flexible business processes. <p> The progression model tracks a users interaction with an application as a set of data elements we refer to as a workflow transaction. The steps a user takes to create a workflow transaction and the state of the workflow transaction at each step is made explicit. By making the workflow status and workflow transaction state explicit, the user can change the order of the steps in a process, manage multiple workflow transactions, keep track of data as it is accumulated, and so on. The intent is to provide the user with a mechanism to deal with partial information, interrupted and concurrent workflow transaction entry, and the processing of multiple workflow transactions. <p> This thesis describes the progression model, an XML-compliant notation to specify the progression model, and a prototype system. </body>

Šio magistro darbo užduotis – apžvelgti šiuo metu labiausiai naudojamas vartotojo sąsajas, kurios padeda žmogui sąveikauti su kompiuteriais ir kitais įrenginiais bei sąsajų architektūros būdus, kurie palengvina programų kūrimą. Taip pat išanalizuoti šiuo metu plačiausiai naudojamus metodus interneto paslaugoms įgyvendinti, kad būtų rastas sprendimas, kaip interaktyvios informacinės sistemos galėtų bendrauti tarpusavyje be apribojimų reikiamam funkcionalumui gauti pasirenkant geriausią būdą saugoti ir atvaizduoti reikiamus programos duomenis kuo paprastesniu ir lankstesniu būdu. Sukurti lygiagrečių tekstynų prototipą, kuris leistų matyti gautą rezultatą su galimybe kuo lengviau ir greičiau rasti bei koreguoti automatiškai sugeneruotus netikslumus, jei tokie yra, pritaikant sąsają, kuri būtų patogesnė ir reikalautų kuo mažiau darbo pastangų. Pasinaudojant prototipu atlikti tyrimą, kuris parodytų įvesties įrenginių naudojimo tendencijas. Darbą sudaro 8 dalys: įvadas, vartotojo sąsajų apžvalga, vartotojo sąsajos atskyrimas, interneto paslaugų analizė, XML duomenų bazės, vartotojo sąsajos kūrimas, išvados ir literatūros sąrašas. Darbo apimtis – 48 p. teksto be priedų, 25 paveikslai ir 2 lentelės. Atskirai pridedami 2 darbo priedai. / The purpose of this thesis is to review most currently used user interfaces that help people interact with computers and other equipment, and begin exploring new user interface paradigm, which allows humans to interact naturally with the computer. Furthermore, analyze the most widely used methods today for implementing web services, to find a solution how interactive information systems could communicate with each other without any restrictions to gain an overall result choosing the best way to store and display relevant data to the program simpler and more flexible way. Create an interactive parallel corpus development environment prototype for minimizing available errors, if they occur, from the generated parallel translation as easy as possible using as less human labor as possible. Using the prototype, perform a study that will show trends in the use of different interface input devices. The work consists of 8 parts: introduction, overview of user interfaces, user interface separation, web services analysis, XML databases, user interface development, conclusions and references. Thesis consists of: 48 pages of text without appendixes, 25 pictures and 2 tables. Two enclosures of the work are enclosed separately.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:48:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LirisneiGS.pdf: 852828 bytes, checksum: d8e0d9662bced4742e1d852cf03d78a8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-08-20 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / This work presents an User Interface (UI) prototypes generation process to the softwares that has a Web browser as a plataform. This process uses UI components more complex than HTML elements. To described this components more complex this work suggest to use the XICL (eXtensinble User Interface Components Language). XICL is a language, based on XML syntax, to describe UI Components and IUs. XICL promotes extensibility and reusability in the User Interface development process. We have developed two compiler. The first one compiles IMML (Interactive Message Modeling Language) code and generates XICL code. The second one compiles XICL code and generates DHTML code / Este trabalho apresenta um processo de gera??o de prot?tipos de Interfaces de Usu?rio (IU) para software que tem como plataforma operacional um navegador Web. Este processo faz o uso de componentes de interface de usu?rio mais complexos que os elementos HTML. Para descrever estes componentes mais complexos este trabalho sugere o uso da linguagem XICL (eXtensible User Interface Components Language). A XICL ? uma linguagem, baseada em XML, para a descri??o de componentes de IU e de IUs. A XICL permite reusabilidade e extensibilidade no desenvolvimento de interfaces de usu?rios. Foram desenvolvidos dois compiladores, um que gera c?digo XICL a partir de c?digo IMML (Interactive Message Modeling Language) e outro que a partir de XICL gera DHTML