MORE for less: Model recovery from visual interfaces for multi-device application design

Abstract

An emerging approach to multi-device application development requires developers to build an abstract semantic model that is translated into specific implementations for web browsers, PDAs, voice systems and other user interfaces. Specifying abstract semantics can be difficult for designers accustomed to working with concrete screen-oriented layout. We present an approach to model recovery: inferring semantic models from existing applications, enabling developers to use familiar tools but still reap the benefits of multi-device deployment. We describe MORE, a system that converts the visual layout of HTML forms into a semantic model with explicit captions and logical grouping. We evaluate MORE's performance on forms from existing Web applications, and demonstrate that in most cases the difference between the recovered model and a hand-authored model is under 5%.