Helping Non-programmers to Understand the Functionality of Composite Web Applications

Carsten Radeck, Klaus Meißner

2017

Abstract

The mashup paradigm allows end users to build their own web applications by combining components in order to fulfill specific needs. Mashup development and usage are still cumbersome tasks for non-programmers, for instance, when it comes to understanding the composite nature of mashups and their functionality. Non-programmers may struggle to use components as intended, especially if the latter provide capabilities in combination, and may lack awareness for inter-widget communication (IWC). Prevalent mashup approaches provide no or limited concepts for these aspects, resulting in more or less successful trial and error strategies of users. In this paper, we present our proposal for assisting non-programmers to understand and leverage the functionality of components and their interplay in a mashup. Based on annotated component descriptions, interactive explanations and step-wise instructions are generated and presented directly in context of components’ user interface (UI). In addition, active IWC is visualized to foster awareness of users. We describe the iterative design which led us from early approaches towards our current solution. The concepts are implemented in our mashup platform and evaluated by means of a user study. The results indicate that our solutions help non-programmers to better understand the functionality of composite web application (CWA).

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Radeck C. and Meißner K. (2017). Helping Non-programmers to Understand the Functionality of Composite Web Applications . In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST, ISBN 978-989-758-246-2, pages 149-159. DOI: 10.5220/0006362301490159

in Bibtex Style

@conference{webist17,
author={Carsten Radeck and Klaus Meißner},
title={Helping Non-programmers to Understand the Functionality of Composite Web Applications},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST,},
year={2017},
pages={149-159},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0006362301490159},
isbn={978-989-758-246-2},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST,
TI - Helping Non-programmers to Understand the Functionality of Composite Web Applications
SN - 978-989-758-246-2
AU - Radeck C.
AU - Meißner K.
PY - 2017
SP - 149
EP - 159
DO - 10.5220/0006362301490159