Integrating Usability Models into Pervasive Application Development

This thesis describes novel processes in two important areas of
human-computer interaction (HCI) and demonstrates ways to combine
these in appropriate ways. First, prototyping plays an essential
role in the development of complex applications. This is especially
true if a user-centred design process is followed. We describe and
compare a set of existing toolkits and frameworks that support the
development of prototypes in the area of pervasive computing. Based
on these observations, we introduce the EIToolkit that allows the
quick generation of mobile and pervasive applications, and
approaches many issues found in previous works. Its application and
use is demonstrated in several projects that base on the
architecture and an implementation of the toolkit. Second, we
present novel results and extensions in user modelling,
specifically for predicting time to completion of tasks. We
extended established concepts such as the Keystroke-Level Model to
novel types of interaction with mobile devices, e.g. using optical
markers and gestures. The design, creation, as well as a validation
of this model are presented in some detail in order to show its use
and usefulness for making usability predictions. The third part is
concerned with the combination of both concepts, i.e. how to
integrate user models into the design process of pervasive
applications. We first examine current ways of developing and show
generic approaches to this problem. This leads to a concrete
implementation of such a solution. An innovative integrated
development environment is provided that allows for quickly
developing mobile applications, supports the automatic generation
of user models, and helps in applying these models early in the
design process. This can considerably ease the process of model
creation and can replace some types of costly user studies.