Using interaction style to match the ubiquitous user interface to the device-to-hand

Abstract

Ubiquitous computing requires a multitude of devices to have access to the same services. Abstract specifications of user interfaces are designed to separate the definition of a user interface from that of the underlying service. This paper proposes the incorporation of interaction style into this type of specification. By selecting an appropriate interaction style, an interface can be better matched to the device being used. Specifications that are based upon three different styles have been developed, together with a prototype Style-Based Interaction System (SIS) that utilises these specifications to provide concrete user interfaces for a device. An example weather query service is described, including specifications of user interfaces for this service that use the three different styles as well as example concrete user interfaces that SIS can produce. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2005.