Distributed Web browsing: supporting frequent uses and opportunistic requirements

TL;DR

This paper introduces a client-side platform for distributed web browsing that empowers end users to augment existing web applications, enhancing user interaction and supporting opportunistic distributed user interface requirements.

Contribution

It proposes moving UI and interaction distribution to the client side, enabling end users to augment web applications without server modifications.

Findings

Prototype demonstrates effective client-side DUI support

Case studies show improved user interaction capabilities

Platform enables opportunistic and frequent DUI requirements

Abstract

Nowadays, the development of Web applications supporting distributed user interfaces (DUI) is straightforward. However, it is still hard to find Web sites supporting this kind of user interaction. Although studies on this field have demonstrated that DUI would improve the user experience, users are not massively empowered to manage these kinds of interactions. In this setting, we propose to move the responsibility of distributing both the UI and user interaction, from the application (a Web application) to the client (the Web browser), giving also rise to inter-application interaction distribution. This paper presents a platform for client-side DUI, built on the foundations of Web augmentation and End User Development. The idea is to empower end users to apply an augmentation layer over existing Web applications, considering both frequent use and opportunistic DUI requirements. In this work, we present the architecture and a prototype tool supporting this approach and illustrate the incorporation of some DUI features through case studies.