A design-oriented information-flow refinement of the ASUR interaction model

Abstract

The last few years have seen an explosion of interaction possibilities opened up by ubiquitous computing, mobile devices, and tangible interaction. Our methods of modelling interaction, however, have not kept up. As is to be expected with such a rich situation, there are many ways in which interaction might be modelled, focussing, for example, on user tasks, physical location(s) and mobility, data flows or software elements. In this paper, we present a model and modelling technique intended to capture key aspects of user's interaction of interest to interactive system designers, at the stage of requirements capture and early design. In particular, we characterise the interaction as a physically mediated information exchange, emphasizing the physical entities involved and their relationships with the user and with one another. We apply the model to two examples in order to illustrate its expressive power. © 2008 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.