Revisiting the Concept of Distributed User Interfaces

Abstract

The appearance of a new generation of user interfaces (UI) capable of taking advantage of the diverse and growing ecosystem of interconnected displays has given rise to a new distribution dimension of UIs that are known, up to now, as Distributed User Interfaces (DUI). This new dimension is revolutionizing the way user interfaces are created, designed and used, considering that DUIs give the user the capability to divide the UI and distribute it dynamically among different devices. Through this set of devices, users are capable of completing a task as if it was performed on a traditional UI. Nevertheless, it is necessary to find a formal and precise definition of the concept of DUIs, since the previous ones are either not precise enough, or they do not cover all the existing distribution possibilities. In this work, we define the fundamental terms to explain the DUI concept and we propose a metamodel able to model any user interface and to classify and characterize it as well. This work establishes a conceptual framework of reference for future developments in this field. Finally, five known applications are classified by the proposed metamodel to illustrate the new concepts.