FULL TITLE

Context modelling in interactive systems design

keywords

model checking, mobile systems, context, ubiquity, human computer interaction

summary

In the case of modelling of context for design of mobile and ubiquitous interactive systems a feasibility study [1] has been completed (see general background) for general introduction to this topic area. From the perspective of context, mobility of ubiquitous systems offers the possibility of using the current context to infer information that might otherwise require user input.

This can either make user interfaces more intuitive or cause subtle and confusing mode changes. Analysis of such systems would allow the designer to predict potential pitfalls before the design is fielded. Whereas the current predominant approach to understanding mobile systems is to build and explore experimental prototypes, our exploration highlights the possibility that early models of an interactive system might be used to predict problems with embedding in context before costly mistakes have been made.

A statechart model of context

Analysis based on model checking was used [1] to contrast configuration and context issues in two interfaces to a process control system. These techniques were used to:

analyse differences between different interface configurations, in this case the difference between a central control room and a mobile hand-held PDA.

A hand held controller

analyse contextual effects such as the effect of the position of the hand-held device in the plant on location.

A simple model of context based on location was developed to analyse user action and user process. In particular issues associated with the user forgetting to explicitly register controls that were local to current position were identified and the design modified as a result to introduce an interlock dealing with the problem.

Papers

[1] Loer, K. & Harrison, M.D. (in press) Analysing user confusion in context aware mobile applications. In proceedings Interact 2005. Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

author

Michael Harrison (Newcastle)