Supporting rapid design and evaluation of pervasive application:

challenges and solutions

Lei Tang1,2, Zhiwen Yu1, Xingshe Zhou1, Hanbo Wang1, Christian Becker2

1. School of Computer, Northwestern Polytechnical University2. University of Mannheim

Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 2011

Outline

• Introduction• Designing Challenges• User-centered prototyping technique• Rapid prototyping toolkits• Open issues• Conclusions

Introduction

"value for end-users"

"core technical workability"

Build a Good Application (1/3)

GoodApplication

Design Evaluate

Building a Good Application (2/3)

Building a Good Application (3/3)

It is very difficult to predict how users will react when designing a service.

Problem

High cost in a design process

Problem

Rapid Prototype Tools

Rapid Prototype Tools

Which one?

• Classifying design challenges • Overview of prototyping techniques• Presenting several open issues

Contribution: Survey Tools

Designing Challenges

Designing Challenges

• User and task analysis in uneven environment• Tracking user intent for implicit interaction• Long-term, in situ design evaluations

User and task analysis in uneven environment

• Uncertainty in user analysis• Mixed task analysis

Past Now Future

Tracking user intent for implicit interaction

Implicit interaction

How to track

user intent?

Long-term, in situ design evaluations

How to find the

appropriate way for

the evaluation?

User-centered prototyping technique

User-centered prototyping technique

• Design cycle with prototypes• Prototyping techniques

Design cycle with prototypes

User-centered prototyping technique

• Design cycle with prototypes• Prototyping techniques

Design cycle with prototypes

• Construct prototypes rapidly• Remove inessential elements• Construct prototypes for a

particular purpose

Design cycle with prototypes

• Construct prototypes rapidly– Find out design issues– Rapid, incremental,

reversible– Identify particular purposes

and prioritize features • Remove inessential elements• Construct prototypes for a

particular purpose

Design cycle with prototypes

• Construct prototypes rapidly• Remove inessential elements– Avoid unnecessary design– Evaluate in early design stage– Remove unnecessary features

• Construct prototypes for a particular purpose

Design cycle with prototypes

• Construct prototypes rapidly• Remove inessential elements• Construct prototypes for a

particular purpose– capture the user’s intent from

the interaction experience (when, where, how)

– test the design for usability

Design cycle with prototypes

• Construct prototypes rapidly• Remove inessential elements• Construct prototypes for a

particular purpose– capture the user’s intent from

the interaction experience (when, where, how)

– test the design for usability

User-centered prototyping technique

• Design cycle with prototypes• Prototyping techniques

Prototyping techniques

• Paper prototyping• Wizard of Oz prototyping• Experience prototyping• Storyboard prototyping• Form builder prototyping• Functional component prototyping

Prototyping techniques

• Paper prototyping– Create “mockups” of UIs– Testing/evaluating usability and idea rapidly

• Wizard of Oz prototyping• Experience prototyping• Storyboard prototyping• Form builder prototyping• Functional component prototyping

Prototyping techniques

• Paper prototyping• Wizard of Oz prototyping– Simulate system response in real time, and

observes user actions– Challenge : build two interfaces (user and

wizard)• Experience prototyping• Storyboard prototyping• Form builder prototyping• Functional component prototyping

Prototyping techniques

• Paper prototyping• Wizard of Oz prototyping

• Experience prototyping– Designers experience prototype themselves– Diary studies for designers

• Storyboard prototyping• Form builder prototyping• Functional component prototyping

Prototyping techniques

• Paper prototyping• Wizard of Oz prototyping• Experience prototyping

• Storyboard prototyping– Sequence of screens, and show feedback effects– Disadvantage: hard to evaluate user’s reactions.

• Form builder prototyping• Functional component prototyping

Prototyping techniques

• Paper prototyping• Wizard of Oz prototyping• Experience prototyping• Storyboard prototyping

• Form builder prototyping– A Tool for drawing real, working interface by

dragging widget on a window• Functional component prototyping

Prototyping techniques

• Paper prototyping• Wizard of Oz prototyping• Experience prototyping• Storyboard prototyping• Form builder prototyping

• Functional component prototyping– Basic elements from a broad range of research– Provide simple API for prototyping applications

Rapid prototyping toolkits

Rapid prototyping toolkits

• Design-focused toolkits• Evaluation-focused toolkits• Summary

Rapid prototyping toolkits

• Design-focused toolkits• Evaluation-focused toolkits• Summary

Design-focused toolkits

• Prediction-based user analysis• Cyber-physical task analysis• Representation of user intent• Description of application semantics

Design-focused toolkits

• Prediction-based user analysis– Predict users’ performance by task records

• Cyber-physical task analysis• Representation of user intent• Description of application semantics

Design-focused toolkits

• Prediction-based user analysis• Cyber-physical task analysis– Main task -> subtasks– Subtasks analysis

• Representation of user intent• Description of application semantics

Design-focused toolkits

• Prediction-based user analysis• Cyber-physical task analysis• Representation of user intent– Event, condition, action– User preferences

• Description of application semantics

Design-focused toolkits

• Prediction-based user analysis• Cyber-physical task analysis• Representation of user intent• Description of application semantics– Demonstration with state graph – Demonstration with storyboard – Visual programming

Rapid prototyping toolkits

• Design-focused toolkits• Evaluation-focused toolkits– Testing in simulation environment– In situ evaluation – Woz

• Summary

Rapid prototyping toolkits

• Design-focused toolkits• Evaluation-focused toolkits• Summary

Summary

• The context-aware application can be simulated– Device, behavior, long-term user activities– Location context => map based interface

• Based on current infrastructure– CAMP is built on top of the INCA Infrastructure– Visual-RDK is built on an context server– CRN Toolbox is built on KNN classifier algorithm

Summary

• One Prototype Tool => Solve different needs– Understanding user experience– Groping for better design– Simulate complex sensor input

• User-friendly interface for designing and testing– Mouse-driven, drag-and-drop interaction

Open issues

Open issues

• Simulating pervasive environment• Description of context-awareness• Demonstrating application semantics• Robust debugging environment• Logging test data• Integrating the design process• Field deployment• Evaluation criteria

Conclusion

Conclusion