Tool support for designing context-sensitive user interfaces using a model-based approach

Abstract

Since mobile devices are expected to become more and more influenced by various kinds of context information in the near future, context needs to be taken into consideration when user interfaces are developed for these systems. When user interfaces are being developed using a model-based approach, developers need to design several models where the aggregate describes the entire user interface. These models tend to be very complex: models for applications where a lot of interaction is required can be huge and are mutually connected. This is in particular the case when external context information can act on the user interface. In this paper we describe a development process for context-aware user interfaces. We focus on the design part of the development process with attention to tool support for constructing, editing and viewing the models.