research-article

CHAIN

Author:

Pierre A. AkikiAuthors Info & Claims

Journal of Systems and Software, Volume 135, Issue C

Pages 165 - 190

Published: 01 January 2018 Publication History

Abstract

CHAIN is an approach for developing model-driven contextual help for adaptive UIs.CHAIN help models are defined using a language (CHAINXML) and a visual notation.The definition of help models is supported by Cedar Studio.CHAIN help models work with both new and legacy application UIs.Two evaluation studies provided positive indications and insights for future work. Adaptive user interfaces (UIs) change their presentation at runtime to remain usable in different contexts-of-use. Such changes can cause discrepancies between the UI and static help materials, e.g., videos and screenshots, thereby negatively impacting the latter's usefulness (usability and utility). This paper presents Contextual Help for Adaptive INterfaces (CHAIN), which is an approach for developing model-driven contextual help that maintains its usefulness across UI adaptations. This trait is achieved by interpreting the help models at runtime and overlaying instructions on the running adapted UI. A language called Contextual Help for Adaptive INterfaces eXtensible Markup Language (CHAINXML) and a visual notation were developed for expressing and depicting help models. A technique was also devised for presenting CHAIN help models over legacy applications, whether or not their source-code is available. A supporting tool was developed as an extension to Cedar Studio. This work was empirically evaluated in two studies. The first study performed a preliminary evaluation of CHAIN's visual notation. The second study evaluated CHAIN's strengths and shortcomings after using it to develop help for real-life adaptive UIs. The results gave a positive indication about CHAIN's technical qualities and provided insights that could inform future work.

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Cited By

Ramli MJantan AKamaruddin AAbdullah R(2019)The Adaptive Model Driven Approach for Enhancing Usability of User Interface DesignProceedings of the 5th International ACM In-Cooperation HCI and UX Conference10.1145/3328243.3328252(65-69)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3328243.3328252

Index Terms

CHAIN
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

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cover image Journal of Systems and Software

Journal of Systems and Software Volume 135, Issue C

January 2018

214 pages

ISSN:0164-1212

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Copyright © Elsevier Inc.

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Elsevier Science Inc.

United States

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Published: 01 January 2018

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Cited By

Ramli MJantan AKamaruddin AAbdullah R(2019)The Adaptive Model Driven Approach for Enhancing Usability of User Interface DesignProceedings of the 5th International ACM In-Cooperation HCI and UX Conference10.1145/3328243.3328252(65-69)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3328243.3328252

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