Ubiquitous Web Applications A design perspective

1. Ubiquitous Web ApplicationsA design perspective Franca Garzotto HOC- Hypermedia Open Center Politecnico di Milano, Italy garzotto@elet.polimi.it

2. Outline • UWA definition • Enabling Technologies (A touch of) • Examples of UWA applications • Our focus: designing UWA’s • Conclusions • Q&A

3. Outline • UWA definition • the evolution of the web from an application view point • UWA and the convergence of application paradigms • Enabling Technologies (A touch of) • Examples of UWA applications • Our focus: designing UWA’s • Conclusions • Q&A

4. The Evolution • from web based hypertexts to web based hypermedia • from read-only web sites to web applications (navigation + operations) • from a single delivery channel (i.e., the PC) to multiple delivery channels (PDA, WAP, WebTV, ….) • from static delivery devices to mobile delivery devices • from one-size-fit-all web sites to adaptive or adaptable web sites or apps • from profile-aware web applications to context-aware web applications

5. Ubiquitous Web Applications (UWAs): A new class of applications that: • make (a large amount of) multimedia information accessible to the users • provide “operational” services • support some form of transactional behavior • provide a variety of interaction paradigms (e.g. navigation, query, search, operation invocation, etc.)

6. Ubiquitous Web Applications (UWAs):A new class of applications that: • are multi-channel, in the sense that they are available on a variety of different devices, using different connection infrastructures • are ubiquitous, in the sense that they “would like” to be accessible anywhere at anytime. • are used by different categories of users (each one with different characteristics and needs) in different situations of use

7. The convergency ... Hypertextual Navigation Multimedia data User based adaptivity (user profile awareness) UWA Context Awareness Operations & Transactions Mobility & Ubiquity Multiple delivery channels

8. Outline • UWA definition • Enabling Technologies (A touch of) • mobility • wireless communication • mobile divices • Examples of UWA applications • Our focus: UWA design • Conclusions • Q&A

9. Enabling Technologies • the web • new architecture and programming paradigms for web based application execution • data base driven sw architectures • Java technology • …. • Mobile technology

10. Enabling Technologies: mobility Today, technological advances are shaping a new computing environment where the user is free from the need to work with the computer sources at a specific location, and is even enabled to work while on the move

11. Mobility: a New Paradigm... often called also mobile computing • Enabled by • advances in wireless communications, • the increasing availability, miniaturization, and affordability of portable devices • Motivated by • increasing demand for mobile communication, as witnessed by the pervasiveness of cellphones • Accomplished through • a wide range of enabling technologies and possible modes of operations, still to be shaped by products

12. Different Kinds of Mobility Mobility means different things to different people: • personal mobility • the ability of a user to move from one terminal to another without experiencing service disruption, and/or without perceiving a change in the application context (the application “follows” the user) • logical mobility • the ability of software programs to migrate across the hosts of a computer network (mobile code or mobile agents) • physical mobility

13. Physical mobility • the ability for the user to move from one device to another, or to move with his/her own device without perceiving a change in the application context • achieved by three main “technological paradigms”: • nomadic computing • base station mobility • ad hoc networking

14. Nomadic Computing • Users connect to the network from arbitrary and changing locations, • … are not permanently connected, and … • … do not necessarily benefit of wireless links: they carry out most network-related functions at a fixed location

15. Base Station Mobility • Users move from site to site while retaining connectivity (and identity) during movements, and • … exploit wireless links to connect to a wired infrastructure, that carries out most of the computation and communication (typically including routing) • Mobile nodes act as the leaves of the architecture

16. Ad-Hoc Networking • It is the most radical scenario for mobility, where no wired infrastructure is available: communication takes place entirely through the wireless network

17. Wireless Communication Wireless communication is enabled by essentially two media: • radio • infrared

18. Wireless Infrared Communication In general, infrared technology is • restricted to very short distances • subject to line-of-sight limitation • is now of common use for : • interconnecting devices and peripherals (e.g., PC with PDA, printer, or cellphone) • mobile applications where short range is actually desirable (E.g., experimental museum walkthroughs where people standing in front of a painting get information about it automatically fetched on their PDA)

19. Wireless Radio Communication • Used by the majority of mobile wireless technology • Impredictable impairment effects caused by: • waves reflected by ground and obstacles arrive to the receiver out of phase, and summed to the direct signal; • Transmitters transmitting too close, or with a signal too powerful, or on the same frequency • Background noise (e.g., thermal) depending on the receiver sensitivity • Atmospheric noise (e.g., caused by storms) can scramble the signal • Industrial noise: generated by all electric equipment

20. Wireless Networks Typically, wireless networks are conceived as a replacement of conventional technologies for the traditional kinds of networks: • Wide area networks (WAN) • Cellular phones, satellites • Local-area networks (LAN) • 802.11, HiperLAN • Metropolitan/Campus-wide area networks (MAN): • Wireless routers, Wireless Local Loop • Personal area networks (PAN): • seamless interconnection of a user’s device with other devices in the immediate surroundings • Bluetooth

21. Master Station Webservers ISP Internet Satellite-based Wireless WAN • The use of small satellites to create a WAN infrastructure connecting several geographically dispersed LANs has become a standard option for large organizations • Easy to support mobile workers, e.g., truck drivers • Satellites support also the Global Positioning System (GPS)

22. Bluetooth • Developed by a consortium established in 1998 by Ericsson, Nokia, IBM, Toshiba, Intel • The main objective is to enable straightforward connectivity among a user’s devices like PDA, cellphone, laptop, avoiding cumbersome cable connections and configuration procedures, with a low-cost, single-chip solution • The Bluetooth 1.1 specifications were released in February 2001, the first products are appearing

23. Mobile Devices • Labtops • PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) • Emerged in 1993 as a data organization and communication devices, with specialized OS and GUI, and handwriting recognition. The initial products fell short of expectations, and suffered from the rapid growth of the laptop market • Modern PDAs benefit of the technological advances of wireless communication (but energy supply is still a major bottleneck) • Thee main PDA classes • palmtops • hadheld • communicators

24. Palmtop Devices • typically very small (to fit in a pocket) • a pen-based user interface , no keyboard • Expansions for wired and wireless LAN and modems, cellular telephony, and GPS are available • a rechargeable battery (or common AA batteries)

25. Handheld Devices • bigger in size • with a wider screen and keyboard (+ pen-based interfaces - usually)

26. Communicators • an attempt at combining the concept of PDA with a cellular phone, thus reducing the number of devices and providing the PDA with ubiquitous connectivity • They typically support WAP

27. Some Fancier Portable Appliances

28. New Frontiers: Wearable Computing • “a computer that is always with you, is comfortable, and easy to keep and use, and unobtrusive as clothing” • Prototypes typically include a see-through head-mounted displays, showing information superimposed with real-world (augmented reality) • Ideally, they should allow hands-free operation, employing voice recognition techniques • Main applications: military and industrial environments

29. Issues in Mobility_1 • Quality of service and performance in general is impacted by • Dynamic topology causes instability - disconnections are frequent • Links are bandwidth-constrained, of variable capacity, interference-prone, and possibly asymmetric • Energy-constraints • Portable devices are operated with batteries, and often disconnection is forced by the user to increase autonomy • Wireless vulnerability and limited security • The ease of setting up and joining a wireless network is at the same time a vulnerability of the overall system

30. Issues in Mobility_2: Applications Hardware, communication technology, infrastructures, is evolving at a very fast pace, pushed by market demands BUT which applications? The potential coming from mobile technology is still largely to be explored

31. Outline • UWA definition • Enabling Technologies (A touch of) • Examples of UWA applications • Our focus: designing UWA’s • Conclusions • Q&A

32. UWA examples • mobile application on PDA • Xerox PARCElectronic: PDA Guidebook for Filoli Historic House • adaptive/context aware mobile application on PDA • University of Siena : Civic Museum Touristic Guide • multi-devices web application (PDA, PC, • S. Franisco MOMA “Point of Departure” • context-aware mobile web application • CNR MUSE project

33. Guidebook Prototype • Handheld color PDA • Pictures of objects • Tap on objects to get short descriptions • Audio or text option • If miss, outlines appear • Press button to change viewing perspective

34. The Tourist Guide at the Civic Museum in Siena Context Aware Adaptive Application:

35. Listening, Watching, and Reading...

36. Different visitor profiles induce different forms of adaptivity The Ant Visitor The Grassoper Visitor The Butterfly Visitor The Fish Visitor

37. Multi-channel Web Application: The SF Moma “Points of Departure” Making Sense of Modern Art: Points of Departure section

38. The SF Moma “Points of Departure” IPAQ Gallery Explorer: Visitor watches artist Gerhard Richter on a Gallery Explorer while standing before a Richter seascape IPAQ Gallery Explorer: Artist Robert Rauschenberg narrates the story of his Erased de Kooning Drawing

39. Context Aware Mobile WEB Application: The MUSE system MUSE (Museums and Sites Explorer) project A project of the CNR - National Research Program on Cultural al Heritage “PARNASO” (2000-’03) Università di Bologna, Cineca, Public Cultural Heritage institutions, Private companies

40. The Mobile Interactive Multimedia Illustrator Barracuda tablets (Intel Labs prototype) Weared witha shoulder strap like a camera Radio connected a site server

41. MUSE: Navigating Virtual Pompei

42. M.U.S.E. Services MUSE Network Proxy Server SRB INTERNET Router Firewall SRB Site Services Site Network MUSE: Basic topology

43. SRB RSA1 MUSE: Main services Cd server & accounting unit Multimediaserver Mailserver Administration Terminal Applicationserver DB server Servers may be located on one or more machines SRB RSA1 RSA2 RSA2

44. SITE SERVER RBS HIGH PERFORMANCE GRAPHICS PANEL MULTIMEDIA MOBILE TERMINAL MUSE: Two fruition modes basic enhanced

45. Outline • UWA definition • Examples of UWA applications • Enabling Technologies (a touch of) • Design Issues • motivations • integrating navigation & operations • customization • Conclusions • Q&E

46. Motivations for “investing” on design Assuming we have the “perfect” technology: • The effectiveness and quality of WAs depends, to a large extent, upon the quality of the requirements-design process • The quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of the design process depend, at large, upon the design methodology ant the corresponding design tools • The effectiveness and the efficiency of the development-maintenance cycle of WAs depend, at large, upon the quality of the design.

47. Our approach to UWA design • User-Oriented • designing UWAs properties in the user perspective, i.e., modeling aspects that are directly perceived by end users • see conceptual design in DBs • System-oriented • designing UWAs properties in the system perspective, i.e., modeling aspects that are of interest from an implementor’s perspective

48. UWA: novel design issues ….w.r.t. traditional web site design or traditional application design? • Integrating “operations” and navigation • implications of mobility and ubiquity on “operational state “ • user profile + context awareness into account: customization

49. Integrating operations and navigation • UWAS enable users not only to search and browse information, but also to perform complex workflows of activities, involving possibly sophisticated data processing and intensive data modifications • from a user experience perspective, NOT just an add-on • the navigation paradigm of interaction and the operational paradigm of interaction are integrated

50. A new design space The Hypermedia Design Space Access Layer Hyperbase Layer Information Navigation Presentation Operations The Web Application Design Space