Abstract
Service-centric solutions usually require rich context to fully deliver and better reflect on the underlying applications. We present a novel use of context in the form of customized user interface services with the concept of User Interface as a Service (UIaaS). UIaaS takes user profiles as input to generate context-aware interface services. Such interface services can be used as context to augment semantic services with contextual information leading to UIaaS as a Context (UIaaSaaC). The added serendipitous benefit of the proposed concept is that the composition of a customized user interface with the requested service is performed by the service composition engine, as is the case with any other services. We use a special-purpose language (called User Interface Description Language (UIDL)) to model and realize user interfaces as services. We use a real-life e-government application, human services delivery for the citizens, as a proof-of-concept. We also present a comprehensive evaluation of the proposed approach using a functional evaluation and a nonfunctional evaluation consisting of an end user usability test and expert usability reviews.
- Abowd, G. D., Dey, A. K., Brown, P. J., Davies, N., Smith, M., and Steggles, P. 1999. Towards a better understanding of context and context-awareness. In Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Handheld and Ubiquitous Computing. Springer-Verlag, 304--307. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Baldauf, M., Dustdar, S., and Rosenberg, F. 2007. A survey on context-aware systems. Int. J. Ad Hoc Ubiq. Comput. 2, 4, 263--277. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Berardi, D., Calvanese, D., Giacomo, G. D., Hull, R., and Mecella, M. 2005. Automatic composition of web services in Colombo. In Proceedings of the 13th Italian Symposium on Advanced Database Systems. A. Calì, D. Calvanese, E. Franconi, M. Lenzerini, and L. Tanca, Eds., 8--15.Google Scholar
- Bouguettaya, A., Nepal, S., Sherchan, W., Zhou, X., Wu, J., Chen, S., Liu, D., Li, L., Wang, H., and Liu, X. 2010. End-to-end service support for mashups. IEEE Trans. Serv. Comput. 3, 3, 250--263. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Brown, P., Bovey, J., and Chen, X. 1997. Context-aware applications: From the laboratory to the marketplace. IEEE Pers. Comm. 4, 5, 58--64.Google Scholar
Cross Ref
- Butter, T., Aleksy, M., Bostan, P., and Schader, M. 2007. Context-aware user interface framework for mobile applications. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops. 39--40. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Chen, H., Finin, T., and Joshi, A. 2003. An ontology for context-aware pervasive computing environments. Knowl. Engin. Rev. 18, 3, 197--207. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Chin, J. P., Diehl, V. A., and Norman, K. L. 1988. Development of an instrument measuring user satisfaction of the human-computer interface. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM Press, New York, NY, 213--218. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Curbera, F., Duftler, M., Khalaf, R., Nagy, W., Mukhi, N., and Weerawarana, S. 2002. Unraveling the web services web: An introduction to SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI. IEEE Internet Comput. 6, 2, 86--93. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Davis, F. 1989. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quart. 13, 3, 319--339. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Dey, A. K., Abowd, G., Pinkerton, M., and Wood, A. 1998. Cyberdesk: A framework for providing self-integrating context-aware services. Knowledge-Based Syst. 47--54.Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Gu, T., Pung, H. K., and Zhang, D. 2005. A service-oriented middleware for building context-aware services. J. Netw. Comput. Appl. 28, 1, 1--18. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Gu, T., Pung, H. K., and Zhang, D. Q. 2004. Toward an OSGi-based infrastructure for context-aware applications. IEEE Perv. Comput. 3, 4, 66--74. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Han, S. H., Yun, M. H., Kim, K.-J., and Kwahk, J. 2000. Evaluation of product usability: development and validation of usability dimensions and design elements based on empirical models. Int. J. Indust. Erg. 26, 4, 477--488.Google Scholar
Cross Ref
- Hofer, T., Schwinger, W., Pichler, M., Leonhartsberger, G., Altmann, J., and Retschitzegger, W. 2003. Context-awareness on mobile devices—the hydrogen approach. In Proceedings of the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 292--2101. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Jeffries, R., Miller, J. R., Wharton, C., and Uyeda, K. 1991. User interface evaluation in the real world: a comparison of four techniques. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM Press, New York, NY, 119--124. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Kashyap, V. and Sheth, A. P. 1996. Semantic and schematic similarities between database objects: A context-based approach. Int. J. VLDB 5, 4, 276--304. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Kassoff, M., Kato, D., and Mohsin, W. 2003. Creating guis for web services. IEEE Int. Comp. 7, 5, 66--73. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Kona, S., Bansal, A., Blake, M. B., and Gupta, G. 2008. Generalized semantics-based service composition. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Web Services. 219--227. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Kruger, A., Butz, A., Müller, C., Stahl, C., Wasinger, R., Steinberg, K.-E., and Dirschl, A. 2004. The connected user interface: Realizing a personal situated navigation service. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces. ACM Press, New York, NY, 161--168. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Kumar, M., Gupta, A., and Saha, S. 2006. An approach to adaptive user interfaces using interactive media systems. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces. ACM Press, New York, NY, 312--314. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Lavie, T. and Meyer, J. 2010. Benefits and costs of adaptive user interfaces. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud. 68, 8, 508--524. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Lewis, J. R. 1995. IBM computer usability satisfaction questionnaires: Psychometric evaluation and instructions for use. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact. 7, 1, 57--78. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Li, L., Liu, D., and Bouguettaya, A. 2009. Semantic weaving for context-aware web service composition. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Web Information System Engineering. 101--114. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Likert, R. 1932. A technique for the measurement of attitudes. Arch. Psych. 140, 1--55.Google Scholar
- Lin, H. X., C. Y.-Y., and Salvendy, G. 1997. A proposed index of usability: A method for comparing the relative usability of different software systems. Behav. Inf. Technol. 16, 5, 267--277.Google Scholar
- Liu, J., Wong, C. K., and Hui, K. K. 2003. An adaptive user interface based on personalized learning. IEEE Intel. Sys. 18, 2, 52--57. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Lund, A. 2001. Measuring usability with the USE questionnaire. Usability User Exp. Newsl. STC Usabil. 8, 2.Google Scholar
- Maamar, Z., Benslimane, D., and Narendra, N. C. 2006. What can context do for web services? Comm. ACM 49, 12, 98--103. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Maamar, Z., Benslimane, D., Thiran, P., Ghedira, C., Dustdar, S., and Sattanathan, S. 2007. Towards a context-based multi-type policy approach for web services composition. Data Know. Eng. 62, 2, 327--351. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Maamar, Z., Mostefaoui, S. K., and Yahyaoui, H. 2005. Toward an agent-based and context-oriented approach for web services composition. IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Engin. 17, 5, 686--697. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Malik, Z. and Bouguettaya, A. 2009. Rateweb: Reputation assessment for trust establishment among web services. Int. J. VLDB 18, 4, 885--911. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Medjahed, B. and Atif, Y. 2007. Context-based matching for web service composition. Dist. Parall. Datab. 21, 1, 5--37. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Medjahed, B., Bouguettaya, A., and Elmagarmid, A. K. 2003. Composing web services on the semantic web. Int. J. VLDB 12, 4, 333--351. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Moldovan, D., Clark, C., and Harabagiu, S. 2005. Temporal context representation and reasoning. In Proceedings of the 19th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1099--1104. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Mostéfaoui, S. K. and Hirsbrunner, B. June 2003. Towards a context-based service composition framework. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Web Services. L.-J. Zhang, Ed. CSREA, 42--45.Google Scholar
- Mowafi, Y. and Zhang, D. 2007. A user-centered approach to context-awareness in mobile computing. In Proceedings of the 4th Annual International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems, Networking & Services. 1--3. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Mrissa, M., Ghedira, C., Benslimane, D., Maamar, Z., Rosenberg, F., and Dustdar, S. 2007. A context-based mediation approach to compose semantic web services. ACM Trans. Internet Technol. 8, 1, 4. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Narayanan, S. and McIlraith, S. A. 2002. Simulation, verification and automated composition of web services. In Proceedings of the 11th International World Wide Web Conference. ACM Press, New York, NY, 77--88. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Nielsen, J. 1993. Usability Engineering. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, CA. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Noy, N. F. and Musen, M. A. 2001. Anchor-PROMPT: Using non-local context for semantic matching. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Ontologies and Information Sharing at the 17th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence.Google Scholar
- Ouzzani, M. and Bouguettaya, A. 2004. Efficient access to web services. IEEE Int. Comput. 8, 2, 34--44. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Parr, T. 2007. The Definitive Antlr Reference: Building Domain-Specific Languages (1st Ed.). Pragmatic Bookshelf. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Pawlak, R., Seinturier, L., Duchien, L., and Florin, G. September 2001. JAC: A flexible solution for aspect-oriented programming in java. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Metalevel Architectures and Separation of Crosscutting Concerns. A. Yonezawa and S. Matsuoka, Eds., Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series, vol. 2192. Springer, 1--24. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Paymans, T. F., Lindenberg, J., and Neerincx, M. 2004. Usability trade-offs for adaptive user interfaces: ease of use and learnability. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces. ACM Press, New York, NY, 301--303. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Repo, P. 2004. Facilitating user interface adaptation to mobile devices. In Proceedings of the 3rd Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. ACM Press, New York, NY, 433--436. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Riva, O. and Toivonen, S. 2007. The dynamos approach to support context-aware service provisioning in mobile environments. J. Syst. Softw. 80, 12, 1956--1972. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Ryan, N., Pascoe, J., and Morse, D. 1997. Enhanced reality fieldwork: The context-aware archaeological assistant. Comput. Appl. Archaeology.Google Scholar
- Ryu, S. H., Casati, F., Skogsrud, H., Benatallah, B., and Saint-Paul, R. 2008. Supporting the dynamic evolution of web service protocols in service-oriented architectures. ACM Trans. Web 2, 2, 13:1--13:46. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Schilit, B., Adams, N., and Want, R. 1994. Context-aware computing applications. In Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications. Computer Society, 85--90. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Sheng, Q. Z. and Benatallah, B. 2005. ContextUML: A UML-based modeling language for model-driven development of context-aware web services. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Mobile Business. 206--212. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Sheng, Q. Z., Pohlenz, S., Yu, J., Wong, H. S., Ngu, A. H. H., and Maamar, Z. 2009. ContextServ: A platform for rapid and flexible development of context-aware Web services. In Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Software Engineering. 619--622. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Vermeulen, J., Vandriessche, Y., Clerckx, T., Luyten, K., and Coninx, K. 2008. Engineering interactive systems. In Augmenting Services with User Interface Models, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 447--464. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Wang, H., Zhou, X., Zhou, X., Liu, W., Li, W., and Bouguettaya, A. 2010. Adaptive service composition based on reinforcement learning. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Service Oriented Computing. 92--107.Google Scholar
- Weis, T., Saternus, M., Knoll, M., Brändle, A., and Combetto, M. 2006. Towards a general purpose user interface for service-oriented context-aware applications. In Proceedings of the International Workshop on Context in Advanced Interfaces, in conjunction with the International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces. ACM Press, New York, NY, 53--55. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Yau, S. S., Karim, F., Wang, Y., Wang, B., and Gupta, S. K. S. 2002. Reconfigurable context-sensitive middleware for pervasive computing. IEEE Pervas. Comput. 1, 3, 33--40. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Yu, Q., Liu, X., Bouguettaya, A., and Medjahed, B. 2008. Deploying and managing web services: Issues, solutions, and directions. Int. J. VLDB 17, 3, 537--572. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Zhou, J., Niemela, E., Perala, J., and Pakkala, D. 2007. Web service in context and dependency-aware service composition. In Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE Asia-Pacific Service Computing Conference. 349--355. Google Scholar
Digital Library
Index Terms
Context-sensitive user interfaces for semantic services
Recommendations
Towards virtualization of user interfaces based on UsiXML
Web3D '05: Proceedings of the tenth international conference on 3D Web technologyA model-based approach is presented for structuring a development process of virtual user interfaces based on UsiXML, a XML-compliant User Interface Description Language. UsiXML provides a Concrete User Interface description that remains independent ...
Integrating Service Composition Flow with User Interactions
SOSE '08: Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE International Symposium on Service-Oriented System EngineeringWeb service technologies are best exploited by composing services, and BPEL (Web Services Business Process Execution Language) is adopted industrial-wide as the defacto service composition standard. However, BPEL is applied mainly in the design of ...
Bring QoS to P2P-based semantic service discovery for the Universal Network
Services in the next generation Internet, Universal Network, is distinct from that in the current network. The reason is that the former has QoS (quality of sevice) grading. In the universal network, different services have different QoS; therefore, ...






Comments