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1996
Conference Paper
Title
A flexible presentation model for distributed information systems
Abstract
One of the visions of mobile computing is to put "all information at the user's fingertips" - to allow him to operate on any data, any time, anywhere. The idea is to create an information environment providing the homogeneous access to all data and services available in the distributed, mobile computing infrastructure. A fundamental requirement for the access to such an open, distributed information system is an intelligent selection of methods for information visualization based on user requirements and available display functionality. In this paper, a flexible concept is proposed that allows to enrich the nodes of an information structure with information about which alternative display methods can be used for what parts of the node. These facets are then used by a recursive view generation process for selecting suitable display methods while creating a visualization of an information structure. Influence parameters such as user characteristics, display resources, and data properties can be used to guide the selection process in order to create a presentation that optimally meets the user's goals.
Conference