TriPlet : a conceptual framework for multidimensional adaptation of user interfaces to the context of use

The existing interactive systems tend to still consider a predefined context of use for interaction. Stakeholders mainly consider able-bodied users, desktop platforms, and stable environments. Conversely, users compose a heterogeneous group. They interact using different modalities and devices in distinct environments, which requires appropriate context-aware adaptations. Although adaptation has been largely investigated since the early 90’s, its study has been often constrained. For instance by considering just one dimension of the context of use (i.e. user, platform or environment), by expressing and handling these dimensions in a restrictive approach by using only simple rules, by adapting just one aspect of an interactive system (i.e. content, presentation or navigation). Moreover, the end user benefit not always has the highest priority, making end users lost or without control over the adaptation. The existing frameworks about context-aware adaptation (CAA) are usually technologically driven, narrow in scope or obsolete. Due to these shortcomings, stakeholders have no unified support to rely on during the whole development lifecycle of context-aware adaptation. In order to address these main issues and aiming to bridge the gap between high-level adaptation goals and implementation of adaptation techniques, this thesis presents a conceptual framework for user interface adaptation that integrates the several dimensions that simultaneously compose the diversity of contexts of use through users, platforms, and environments, and the diversity of aspects of an interactive system, including its contents, presentation and navigation. This conceptual framework, named TriPlet, is structured in three core components: a meta-model (CAMM) covering an entire adaptation lifecycle, its concepts, properties, associations and constraints, a reference framework (CARF) that extensively defines adaptation concepts that support the design decisions for several application scenarios, and a design space (CADS) for consistently analyzing, comparing and evaluating coverage levels of CAA of user interfaces with well-defined criteria. A set of concrete applications demonstrates the usefulness of the adaptation concepts expressed by TriPlet, instantiating adaptation concepts as stated in the meta-model, in the reference framework and also in the design space.