We have developed a model, SOL, which allows user interfaces to cooperative applications to be defined, constructed and managed. The aim of our work is to provide a set of facilities which promotes user involvement in the tailoring and management of multi-user interfaces. We wish to examine the provision of cooperative interface facilities which exist outside the application and are independent of its detailed semantics. Our intent is to provide facilities which:
The basis of our approach is to consider the user interface as a collection of different shared active user interface objects that exist within a shared interface layer. Each of these objects is itself collaboration aware and can present itself to a number of users' displays in different ways. Each object also provides external facilities to manage cooperative interaction independent of the application.
Rather than manage each object and its associated views independently, we view each user interface as being derived from a common application interface constructed from a collection of shared interface objects. Managing the user interface is achieved through the manipulation of access to this common application interface.
In addition to the access model we provide a means of managing collaborative aware interaction through the use of a policy node attached to each of the shared user interface objects. The policy node intercepts input from users and decides upon the resulting cooperative behaviour. The policy node allows cooperative behaviour to be reasoned about independently of the behaviour of the application. The use of policy nodes ensures a clear separation between the behavioural semantics of the application and the cooperative setting within which it is placed to be maintained. This separation promotes the provision of external management facilities and the migration of single user applications to a multi-user setting.
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Run time modification of presentation and sharing using an access model |
Run time modification of cooperative behaviour using the interactional policy mechanism |
Smith G. "A Shared Object Layer to Support Cooperative User Interfaces. PhD Thesis. Lancaster University, UK. 1995
Smith G., Rodden T. "SOL : a toolkit for cooperative interfaces", International Journal of Human Computer Studies (IJHCS). No 42. 1995. Academic Press Limited. Pages 207-234.
Smith G., Rodden T. "An access model for shared interfaces", Collaborative Computing. Vol. 1 Number 2, June 1994. ISSN 0968-2082. Chapman & Hall. Pages 109-126.
Smith G., Rodden T. "Access as a means of configuring cooperative interfaces", Conference on organisational computing systems (COOCS), Milpitas, California, USA. November 1-4 1993. pages 289-298.
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