Browsing by Author "Rode, Jochen"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    The Challenges of Web Engineering and Requirements for Better Tool Support
    Rode, Jochen; Rosson, Mary Beth; Pérez-Quiñones, Manuel A. (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2005)
    We report the experiences of semi-professional developers regarding the challenges, tools, and processes within the domain of web application development. The paper summarizes the main problems in web development, characterizes the habits of programmers and concludes with a "developer's wish list" for improvements to web technologies and tools. The report is based on two independent sources - a survey of 31 web developers and an in-depth interview study with 10 participants.
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    An End-User Development Perspective on State-of-the-Art Web Development Tools
    Rode, Jochen; Howarth, Jonathan; Pérez-Quiñones, Manuel A.; Rosson, Mary Beth (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2005)
    We reviewed and analyzed nine commercially available web development tools from the perspective of suitability for end-user development to compare and contrast alternative and best-of-breed approaches for particular problem areas within web application development (Getting Started, Workflow, Level of Abstraction, Layout, Database, Application Logic, Testing and Debugging, Learning and Scaling, Security, Collaboration, and Deployment). End-user development involves the creation of dynamic websites with support for features like authentication, conditional display, and searching/sorting by casual web developers who have some experience creating static websites but little or no programming knowledge. We found that current tools do not lack functionality, but rather have a variety of problems in ease of use for end users who are nonprogrammers. In particular, while many tools offer wizards and other features designed to facilitate specific aspects of end-user development, none of the tools that we reviewed supports a holistic approach to web application development. We discuss the implications of these problems and conclude with recommendations for the design of improved web development tools that would lower the entry barrier into web programming.
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    Web Application Development by Nonprogrammers: User-Centered Design of an End-User Web Development Tool
    Rode, Jochen (Virginia Tech, 2005-07-01)
    This work investigates entry barriers and approaches for facilitating end-user web application development with the particular focus on shaping web programming technology and tools according to end-users' expectations and natural mental models. My underlying assumption and motivation is that given the right tools and techniques even nonprogrammers may become successful web application developers. The main target audience for this research are "casual" webmasters without programming experience - a group likely to be interested in building web applications. As an important subset of web applications I focus on supporting the development of basic data collection, storage and retrieval applications such as online registrations forms, staff databases, or report tools. First I analyze the factors contributing to the complexity of web application development through surveys and interviews of experienced programmers; then I explore the "natural mental models" of potential end-user web developers, and finally discuss my particular design solutions for lowering entry barriers, as embodied by a proof-of-concept development tool, called Click. Furthermore, I introduce and evaluate the concept of "Design-at-Runtime" - a new technique for facilitating and accelerating the development-test cycle when building web-based applications.
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    You've Got Mail! Calendar, Weather and More: Customizable Phone Access to Personal Information
    Pérez-Quiñones, Manuel A.; Rode, Jochen (Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2004)
    We present a design and a prototype of a system that provides access to calendar, email, weather, and news information over a phone using a VoiceXML interface. The system provides quick access to personal information, while enabling but not requiring interactivity. As one major application, we envision the system being used while commuting to work. At home, users define their preferences regarding content and order of presentation using a website. On the road, the personalized audio feed plays like a radio news show. Instead of commercials, the user is reminded of today's meetings, deadlines and listens to the email inbox.