User-Driven Visual Composition of Service-Based Interactive Spaces

Objective: The overall objective of the research work presented in this paper is to investigate models, methods and architectures to replace fixed, pre-packaged applications with flexible composition environments that make interactive environments "emerge" at run-time, based on composition actions performed by non-technical users. The approach aims at the lightweight construction of integrated, situational workspaces pervasively accessible and sharable through a variety of devices. Methods: Based on a meta-design approach, we designed and implemented a platform that allows end users, not necessarily experts of technologies, to extract contents from heterogeneous sources and compose Personal Information Spaces (PISs) that satisfy their information needs. Specific emphasis is posed on the adoption of a composition paradigm that abstracts from technical details and can thus be used by non-technical users. Results: The platform for service composition that supports the activity of the different involved stakeholders is described in details. Thanks to the separation of concerns on which the composition paradigm is based, the overall approach and its enabling platform are also amenable to customization with respect to the requirements of specific domains. Conclusion: We present an approach where a composition platform enables the extraction of content from heterogeneous services and its integration into situational applications where content presentation is flexibly managed through different visual templates. We also discuss the advantages offered by this approach to the stakeholders of a specific community of users in the Cultural Heritage domain. Practice: The developed prototypes were evaluated in laboratories and field studies: the former aimed at investigating the ease of use and the users satisfaction of the functionality and the user interface of the environment for domain customization, the latter aimed instead at observing real users (e.g., guides of an archeological park) in action, to assess the validity of the proposed composition paradigm as an EUD practice. Implications: The user studies described in this paper provided hints for refining the prototypes, and laid the basis for future work related to the identification of design principles that can make service-based composition technologies in general more useful and usable for end users.