Liquid context: Migrating the users’ context across devices

Abstract

The ever increasing computing and storage capacity of smart devices are enabling users to perform in them tasks that until now were relegated only to devices with high computing capabilities (such as PCs or laptops). Empowering users to employ in each moment the device that best adapts to each concrete situation. This demands that the applications deployed on them should provide a consistent user experience when users migrate from one device to another. The Liquid Software paradigm facilitates the development of this kind of applications. However, in order to get a more satisfying user experience, these applications should also be adaptable to the specific context of each user. This position paper presents the concept of Liquid Context, being the contextual information that migrates across devices along with the applications and their data. In addition, we also propose an architecture for the development of context-aware liquid applications. These techniques will improve the usability and the user experience of liquid applications.