Abstract
Context-aware application development frameworks enable context management and environment adaptation to automatize people’s activities. New technologies such as 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT) increase environment context (from devices/services), making functionalities available to augment context-aware applications. The result is an increased deployment of context-aware applications to support end-users in everyday activities. However, developing applications in context-aware frameworks involve diverse technologies, so that it traditionally involves software experts. In general, context-aware applications are limited in terms of personalization for end-users. They include configurations to personalize applications, but non-software experts can only change some of these configurations. Nowadays, advances in human–computer interaction provide techniques/metaphors to approach non-software experts. One approach is end-user development (EUD)—a set of activities and development tools that considers non-software experts as application builders. In this paper, we present our analysis of existing EUD approaches for building context-aware applications. We present a literature review of 37 screened papers obtained from research databases. This review aims to identify the methods, techniques, and tools proposed to build context-aware applications. Specifically, we reviewed EUD building techniques and implementations. Building techniques include metaphors/interaction styles proposed for application specification, composition, and testing. The implementations include a specification method to integrate and process context on the target application platforms. We also present the adoption trend and challenges of context-aware end-user development.
Highlights
Internet of Things (IoT) and ubiquitous applications add context-aware techniques to accomplish the desired adaptation given the rapidly growing data produced by different resources [1]
This review provides an overview of context-aware application building techniques and implementation
This paper presented the result of our literature review of context-aware application development tools applying End-user programming (EUP), end-user development (EUD), and end-user software engineering (EUSE)
Summary
Internet of Things (IoT) and ubiquitous applications add context-aware techniques to accomplish the desired adaptation given the rapidly growing data produced by different resources (e.g., sensors, services, events) [1]. Context-awareness considers endusers (i.e., non-technical people) as receivers of computational services through applications; and software experts (i.e., technical people) as enablers. An essential aspect of context-aware systems is to provide mechanisms to augment the transparency [2,3] while decreasing the cognitive load associated with using the system. One dimension of this load is linked to application development and can be handled by improving the usability of application building tools. A significant aspect of managing varying user requirements is to empower end-users (non-technical people) rather than software experts (i.e., technical people). End-users are aware of what they need and can directly express their requirements to improve computer service provision
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