Multiple User Interfaces Cross Platform Applications and Context Aware Interfaces
| Date: 19 January 2011, 07:55
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In the broad this book can be seen as continuing the address of the problems of ?information overload? associated with the human timely use of diverse equipments developed as products of a current international socio-technical revolution. This revolution associated with the usage of burgeoning technological advances in digital computation and communication.
The principal focus of the book is on Multiple User Interfaces (MUIs), namely interfaces that provide ?different views of the same information and coordinate the services available to users from different computing platforms?. Thus, this book has a strong primary subject focus and a predominant Information Technology perspective. The book also provides an address on the issues and implications related to the over and under functionality of equipments with regard to their intended purposes, their user interface(s), the levels of their interoperability with other allied equipments, the overall usability of a system of allied equipments, the work environment, and a detailed consideration on the importance of work context to equipment use. Particularly the consideration on usability is focused on the quality of the interfaces between MUI equipments and the user. One of the defining criteria given for needed differences between the functionality of various equipments and their MUIs is the designed size of the equipments as associated with their purpose and the associated degree of required mobility. Note that other perspectives on the many facets of interoperability may be gleaned from publications related to the application of Systems Engineering, Cognitive Engineering, and Human Factors to complex systems.
The range of contributors to the book is impressive, as are the topics they address, the authors being drawn from thirteen countries and three continents. The chapters of the book are partitioned into parts intended to carefully guide the reader through the presented arguments on MUI issues. Part 1 covers the basic terminology used and the book?s objectives. This part represents an effective introduction to the subject and the areas to be addressed by the other parts of the book. From Part 1 the book progresses through: Part 2 representing a consideration of development frameworks related to issues of MUI timely adaptation to use context; to Part 3 with a consideration of the technologies and languages available for MUI development; continuing to Part 4 concerning the essential use of models on which to base MUI development; followed by Part 5 with a consideration of architectures, patterns and toolkits that may be used within MUI development; to the concluding Part 6 addressing MUI evaluation and the social impacts related to the usability of MUIs.
The editors emphasise that the book is not prescriptive in that ?The goal is to give researchers and practitioners a glimpse of the most important problems surrounding MUI design and development?. As such the topics addressed are not meant to be all inclusive. Nevertheless both implicit and explicit indicators are given on many of the areas requiring further work in this area.
For example, a selection of additional subject areas that are related to the topic but not directly addressed in any depth by the book might include: team working through the use of MUIs; the possibilities of dynamic and automated adaptation of MUIs (i.e. with relation to joint human/machine use of knowledge and assessments concerning work practices within the work context and environment); system control, cross MUI training; and MUI users need for prompting through Alerts.
In summary this is a high quality, thought evoking, and well presented book that is strongly recommended to those interested in aspects of the usability and interoperability of systems, this particularly on MUI associated topics. This recommendation regardless of whether the reader is involved in the hard and soft sciences or working as researchers or practitioners.
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