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Context-sensitive user interfaces for semantic services

Published:03 February 2012Publication History
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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.

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    • Published in

      cover image ACM Transactions on Internet Technology
      ACM Transactions on Internet Technology  Volume 11, Issue 3
      January 2012
      130 pages
      ISSN:1533-5399
      EISSN:1557-6051
      DOI:10.1145/2078316
      Issue’s Table of Contents

      Copyright © 2012 ACM

      Publisher

      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      • Published: 3 February 2012
      • Accepted: 1 October 2011
      • Revised: 1 May 2011
      • Received: 1 January 2011
      Published in toit Volume 11, Issue 3

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