Link
Stina Nylander Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Box 1263, SE-16429 Kista, Sweden
Markus Bylund Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Box 1263, SE-16429 Kista, Sweden
Magnus Boman The Royal Institute of Technology, Forum 100, SE-164 40 Kista, Sweden
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing archive
Volume 8 , Issue 1 (February 2004) table of contents
Pages: 42 - 46
Year of Publication: 2004
ISSN:1617-4909
Abstract: When services providing real-time information are accessible from mobile devices, functionality is often restricted and no adaptation of the user interface to the mobile device is attempted. Mobile access to real-time information requires designs for multi-device access and automated facilities for the adaptation of user interfaces. We present TapBroker, a push update service that provides mobile and stationary access to information on autonomous agents trading stocks. TapBroker is developed for the Ubiquitous Interactor system and is accessible from Java Swing user interfaces and Web user interfaces on desktop computers, and from a Java Awt user interface on mobile phones. New user interfaces can easily be added without changes in the service logic.
My Discussion:
A fascinating paper. Its first premisse for connected service is the quite solid thought that customization for the device has to happen -- ok, nothing new there, although, for example, the makers of the Opera browser would say that writing HTML with the old tools is just fine as long as the hTML client does something smart with it. The second one is that this customization has to be automated; none of that writing seven sites/UIs for different devices and modalities in all these languages. Start with one UI description and make it run appropriatly everyhwre. This is achieved by describing all interaction at a very high level with eight meta-actions start, stop, (for services or programs) create, destroy, (for entities like calendar entries) input, output, (get input not in the UI, show stuff) select, modify (select from some alternatives, change an existing entity). From these 'Interaction Acts' a Ui described in a document from an XML called ISD, which is shipped together with a visual customization form -- which can include branding -- to run on a general UI engine for this system on the target device.
An example is given for a UI to a push-based stock-broker service that can be interacted with as an HTML page, a Swing application, or an AWT applet on a smartphone. Alas, here is where the paper starts letting down: the three interfaces do not look fundamentally different, and there is no discussion on how the difference in networking affects how the UI should act.
The structuring of a wireless internet application for a music-on-demand service on UMST devices
Stina Nylander Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Box 1263, SE-16429 Kista, Sweden
Markus Bylund Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Box 1263, SE-16429 Kista, Sweden
Magnus Boman The Royal Institute of Technology, Forum 100, SE-164 40 Kista, Sweden
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing archive
Volume 8 , Issue 1 (February 2004) table of contents
Pages: 42 - 46
Year of Publication: 2004
ISSN:1617-4909
Abstract: When services providing real-time information are accessible from mobile devices, functionality is often restricted and no adaptation of the user interface to the mobile device is attempted. Mobile access to real-time information requires designs for multi-device access and automated facilities for the adaptation of user interfaces. We present TapBroker, a push update service that provides mobile and stationary access to information on autonomous agents trading stocks. TapBroker is developed for the Ubiquitous Interactor system and is accessible from Java Swing user interfaces and Web user interfaces on desktop computers, and from a Java Awt user interface on mobile phones. New user interfaces can easily be added without changes in the service logic.
My Discussion:
A fascinating paper. Its first premisse for connected service is the quite solid thought that customization for the device has to happen -- ok, nothing new there, although, for example, the makers of the Opera browser would say that writing HTML with the old tools is just fine as long as the hTML client does something smart with it. The second one is that this customization has to be automated; none of that writing seven sites/UIs for different devices and modalities in all these languages. Start with one UI description and make it run appropriatly everyhwre. This is achieved by describing all interaction at a very high level with eight meta-actions start, stop, (for services or programs) create, destroy, (for entities like calendar entries) input, output, (get input not in the UI, show stuff) select, modify (select from some alternatives, change an existing entity). From these 'Interaction Acts' a Ui described in a document from an XML called ISD, which is shipped together with a visual customization form -- which can include branding -- to run on a general UI engine for this system on the target device.
An example is given for a UI to a push-based stock-broker service that can be interacted with as an HTML page, a Swing application, or an AWT applet on a smartphone. Alas, here is where the paper starts letting down: the three interfaces do not look fundamentally different, and there is no discussion on how the difference in networking affects how the UI should act.
Link
Marco Roccetti Università di Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
Vittorio Ghini Università di Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
Paola Salomoni Università di Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
Alessandro Gambetti Università di Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
Davide Melandri Università di Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
Mirko Piaggesi Università di Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
Daniela Salsi Università di Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
Symposium on Applied Computing archive
Proceedings of the 2002 ACM symposium on Applied computing table of contents
Madrid, Spain
SESSION: Virtual reality, digital media, and computer games table of contents
Pages: 1066 - 1073
Year of Publication: 2002
ISBN:1-58113-445-2
Abstract: Developing enhanced wireless Internet applications is becoming one of the upcoming challenges for mobile radio networks operators. In this paper we introduce and discuss the general software architecture of a wireless Internet-based application we have designed and implemented to support the distribution of Mp3-based musical songs to UMTS devices. We have examined the effects that Internet traffic has on the performance of wireless UMTS networks, due to the distribution of Mp3 files by means of our wireless application. The download time measurements we have experimentally obtained have shown that an appropriate structuring of the Internet-based wireless application may be very helpful to surmount the problems caused by the Internet standard protocols which were not especially designed for wireless environments.
My Discussion:
More of an infrastructure paper than a UI paper. In order to deal with possible congestion downloading music from many connected clients at the same time, the music is stored redundantly in several libraries. The user on the mobile client browses and selects what music to download, and then a gateway box assembles the musci by downloading different pieces of the musci from several of the libraries, thus creating less bottlenecks... except the obvious one: the gateway itself that has to service all these clients. No word on allowing the handset client do its own assembly from the many libraries, which would have created redundancy.
The authors did architect a solution that would allow for dealing with dropped or throttled connectiuons as is so ubiquitous when using mobile networks, and for which most wired applications do not account. It is based on having their own session layer between the application (both on server and handset) and the network, a session layer that exchanges checkpoints about where the download to the client was interrupted, and can pick up from a checkpoint when the user re-connects.
E-commerce over communicators: challenges and solutions for user interfaces
Marco Roccetti Università di Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
Vittorio Ghini Università di Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
Paola Salomoni Università di Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
Alessandro Gambetti Università di Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
Davide Melandri Università di Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
Mirko Piaggesi Università di Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
Daniela Salsi Università di Bologna, Mura Anteo Zamboni 7, I-40127 Bologna, Italy
Symposium on Applied Computing archive
Proceedings of the 2002 ACM symposium on Applied computing table of contents
Madrid, Spain
SESSION: Virtual reality, digital media, and computer games table of contents
Pages: 1066 - 1073
Year of Publication: 2002
ISBN:1-58113-445-2
Abstract: Developing enhanced wireless Internet applications is becoming one of the upcoming challenges for mobile radio networks operators. In this paper we introduce and discuss the general software architecture of a wireless Internet-based application we have designed and implemented to support the distribution of Mp3-based musical songs to UMTS devices. We have examined the effects that Internet traffic has on the performance of wireless UMTS networks, due to the distribution of Mp3 files by means of our wireless application. The download time measurements we have experimentally obtained have shown that an appropriate structuring of the Internet-based wireless application may be very helpful to surmount the problems caused by the Internet standard protocols which were not especially designed for wireless environments.
My Discussion:
More of an infrastructure paper than a UI paper. In order to deal with possible congestion downloading music from many connected clients at the same time, the music is stored redundantly in several libraries. The user on the mobile client browses and selects what music to download, and then a gateway box assembles the musci by downloading different pieces of the musci from several of the libraries, thus creating less bottlenecks... except the obvious one: the gateway itself that has to service all these clients. No word on allowing the handset client do its own assembly from the many libraries, which would have created redundancy.
The authors did architect a solution that would allow for dealing with dropped or throttled connectiuons as is so ubiquitous when using mobile networks, and for which most wired applications do not account. It is based on having their own session layer between the application (both on server and handset) and the network, a session layer that exchanges checkpoints about where the download to the client was interrupted, and can pick up from a checkpoint when the user re-connects.
Link
Mona Singh
Anuj K. Jain
Munindar P. Singh
Electronic Commerce
Proceedings of the 1st ACM conference on Electronic commerce
Denver, Colorado, United States
Pages: 177 - 186
Year of Publication: 1999
ISBN:1-58113-176-3
Excepr of Abstract: [...] Communicators pose major technical challenges because of their physical limitations and likely modes of usage. They offer small screens for presentation, difficult input, low bandwidth, and intermittent and unreilable connectivity. Further, people use theur Cimminuicators while on the run, in awkward situations, and may break, lose, or have their Communicators stolen. We describe an approach that addresses the above challendes while retaining the convenience of using Communicators. This approach integrates innovations in user interfaces and backend systems for information acces and transactions.
My Discussion:
Seems to have been written before smartphones were on the radar. Their concept smartphone is actually quite big and has a keyboard, which makes the keyboard entry problem easier than it actually is right now. The interesting attribute that you don't see discussed much in other papers is that communicators can be damaged or lost, and that hus it should be possible to reconstruct the users' world on a new machine. The way they achieve this and other input-easing tricks is by assuming every Smartphone is paired with a server deciated to the smartphone that keeps much iof the user's transactions and data. (Just like ... does now.) The novel idea for easing website e-commerce transactions is 'shortcuts' which is almost a form of scripting: it involves letting the user look at the browsing history tree and amalgamate the entries to be performed in sequence including form entry as a macro. This would make navigating to known areas easier (do log-in in portal, go to home page, select buy item in portal page, etc), where then new input can be given.
Personalizing Websites For Mobile Users
Mona Singh
Anuj K. Jain
Munindar P. Singh
Electronic Commerce
Proceedings of the 1st ACM conference on Electronic commerce
Denver, Colorado, United States
Pages: 177 - 186
Year of Publication: 1999
ISBN:1-58113-176-3
Excepr of Abstract: [...] Communicators pose major technical challenges because of their physical limitations and likely modes of usage. They offer small screens for presentation, difficult input, low bandwidth, and intermittent and unreilable connectivity. Further, people use theur Cimminuicators while on the run, in awkward situations, and may break, lose, or have their Communicators stolen. We describe an approach that addresses the above challendes while retaining the convenience of using Communicators. This approach integrates innovations in user interfaces and backend systems for information acces and transactions.
My Discussion:
Seems to have been written before smartphones were on the radar. Their concept smartphone is actually quite big and has a keyboard, which makes the keyboard entry problem easier than it actually is right now. The interesting attribute that you don't see discussed much in other papers is that communicators can be damaged or lost, and that hus it should be possible to reconstruct the users' world on a new machine. The way they achieve this and other input-easing tricks is by assuming every Smartphone is paired with a server deciated to the smartphone that keeps much iof the user's transactions and data. (Just like ... does now.) The novel idea for easing website e-commerce transactions is 'shortcuts' which is almost a form of scripting: it involves letting the user look at the browsing history tree and amalgamate the entries to be performed in sequence including form entry as a macro. This would make navigating to known areas easier (do log-in in portal, go to home page, select buy item in portal page, etc), where then new input can be given.
Link
Corin R. Anderson
Pedro Domingos
Daniel S. Weld
International World Wide Web Conference archive
Proceedings of the tenth international conference on World Wide Web
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Pages: 565 - 575
Year of Publication: 2001
ISBN:1-58113-348-0
Excerpt of Abstract: To best serve the needs of this growing community, we propose building web site personalizers that observe the behavior of web visitors and automatically customize and adapt web sites for each individual mobile visitor. In this paper, we lay the theoretical foundations for web site personalization, discuss our implementation of the web site personalizer PROTEUS, and present experiments evaluating its behavior on a number of academic and commercial web sites. Our initial results indicate that automatically adapting web content for mobile visitors saves a considerable amount of time and effort when seeking information "on the go".
Keywords: Adaptive web sites, personalization, wireless web
My Discussion:
Describing personalizing a web site by using mathematical notation certainly looks rigorous, but the end result is program that seraches through the space of all possible permutations of a site (removing / adding / transposing links in pages and content) by applying a fitness function to each possible personalization of the site. As the authros admit, the optimally personalized site can't be computed this way without significantly pruning the search space down, and one of the ways they do this is by having the resulting site always give more precedence to pages the user is sure to reach, like front page. The model of the user's needs thus ends up skewed towards what the user is bound to reach, not what the user wants. The user's needs are modelled based on where the user went before (probably when using browsers on the big screen), and the function does, IMHO correctly, assign a far higher likelyhood that the user will scroll than that the user will retrieve a link. No metnioning of the problems in tracking users between devices, and that users will have to somehow identify themselves on every device to the site. Their graph of results shows that while in 9 out of ten information retrieval tasks their test users required fewer clicks to get to the desired data (unpersonalized site was on a desktop, personalized site was navigated on a Palm), the time they spent on the sites was equally long for the task. No word on user perception.
Corin R. Anderson
Pedro Domingos
Daniel S. Weld
International World Wide Web Conference archive
Proceedings of the tenth international conference on World Wide Web
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Pages: 565 - 575
Year of Publication: 2001
ISBN:1-58113-348-0
Excerpt of Abstract: To best serve the needs of this growing community, we propose building web site personalizers that observe the behavior of web visitors and automatically customize and adapt web sites for each individual mobile visitor. In this paper, we lay the theoretical foundations for web site personalization, discuss our implementation of the web site personalizer PROTEUS, and present experiments evaluating its behavior on a number of academic and commercial web sites. Our initial results indicate that automatically adapting web content for mobile visitors saves a considerable amount of time and effort when seeking information "on the go".
Keywords: Adaptive web sites, personalization, wireless web
My Discussion:
Describing personalizing a web site by using mathematical notation certainly looks rigorous, but the end result is program that seraches through the space of all possible permutations of a site (removing / adding / transposing links in pages and content) by applying a fitness function to each possible personalization of the site. As the authros admit, the optimally personalized site can't be computed this way without significantly pruning the search space down, and one of the ways they do this is by having the resulting site always give more precedence to pages the user is sure to reach, like front page. The model of the user's needs thus ends up skewed towards what the user is bound to reach, not what the user wants. The user's needs are modelled based on where the user went before (probably when using browsers on the big screen), and the function does, IMHO correctly, assign a far higher likelyhood that the user will scroll than that the user will retrieve a link. No metnioning of the problems in tracking users between devices, and that users will have to somehow identify themselves on every device to the site. Their graph of results shows that while in 9 out of ten information retrieval tasks their test users required fewer clicks to get to the desired data (unpersonalized site was on a desktop, personalized site was navigated on a Palm), the time they spent on the sites was equally long for the task. No word on user perception.
