A Unifying Reference Framework and Model for Adaptive Distributed Hybrid User Interfaces

Over the last decade, research on adaptive and distributed user interfaces (DUIs) has increased. We also witness a growing number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, allowing digital user interfaces (UIs) to communicate with physical objects and vice versa through so-called hybrid user interfaces. There exist various solutions to manage adaptive, distributed or hybrid UIs. However, none of them covers all three aspects and users have to deal with multiple applications and configurations when developing adaptive distributed hybrid user interfaces. We introduce the eSPACE reference framework and conceptual model unifying the domains of adaptive, distributed and hybrid interfaces. While our reference framework has been inspired by the CAMELEON reference framework, the conceptual model is based on the Resource-Selector-Link (RSL) hypermedia meta-model. We propose an approach for adaptive distributed hybrid user interfaces where users can author their user interfaces based on the different levels of abstraction introduced by our reference framework. We further present a use case illustrating the extensibility, flexibility and reusability offered by our unified approach and discuss potential future work.