No Code Required: Giving Users Tools to Transform the Web

by Allen Cypher, Mira Dontcheva, Tessa Lau, Jeffrey Nichols

Overview

No Code Required presents the various design, system architectures, research methodologies, and evaluation strategies that are used by end users programming on the Web. It also presents the tools that will allow users to participate in the creation of their own Web.

Comprised of seven parts, the book provides basic information about the field of end-user programming. Part 1 points out that the Firefox browser is one of the differentiating factors considered for end-user programming on the Web. Part 2 discusses the automation and customization of the Web. Part 3 covers the different approaches to proposing a specialized platform for creating a new Web browser. Part 4 discusses three systems that focus on the customized tools that will be used by the end users in exploring large amounts of data on the Web. Part 5 explains the role of natural language in the end-user programming systems. Part 6 provides an overview of the assumptions on the accessibility of the Web site owners of the Web content. Lastly, Part 7 offers the idea of the Web-active end user, an individual who is seeking new technologies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780123815415
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Publication date:	04/05/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Allen has provided, substantial contributions in the research, design, and implementation of innovative end-user applications. His primary interest is in creating simple interfaces for complex tasks, including intelligent interfaces, customizable software, user interface design, software design, and instruction. Edited the book "Watch What I Do: Programming by Demonstration", which was published by MIT Press in 1993 (3000 sold). He has created several successful end-user programming systems: Eager, Stagecast Creator, and CoScripter. Ph.D. Computer Science, Yale University, A.B. A.B. Mathematics, Princeton University.

Mira has been building web summarization and customization systems since 2005. Mira is interested in a variety of problems including managing, sharing, and repurposing Web content and visualizing heterogenous data. Her dissertation work was on interaction techniques for semi-automatic gathering and customization of web content. Mira is interested in creating systems that allow users to access the information they need quickly and easily. Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Washington.

Tessa has been doing research on end user programming since 1997, resulting in more than a dozen technical papers on the various aspects of EUP. Tessa’s research goal is to develop innovative interfaces for enhancing human productivity and creativity through the use of techniques drawn from artificial intelligence. Her research interests include intelligent user interfaces, machine learning, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, programming by demonstration, and email classification. She also contributed a chapter about her SMARTedit system to the second EUP book, “Your Wish Is My Command”. PhD, University of Washington's Department of CS&E.

Jeffrey currently leads the Highlight project, which is building technology that allows users to easily create their own mobile versions of existing web sites. His research interests are in the field of human-computer interaction, with a specific focus on automated design, mobile computing, end-user programming, and ubiquitous computing. He received his Ph.D. in December 2006 from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute in Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science. His thesis described the first system to automatically generate interfaces that are consistent with a user’s previous experience and provided the first evidence from user studies that automatically generated interfaces can be more usable than human-designed interfaces in certain situations. He received a BS degree in computer engineering from the University of Washington in 2000.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Preface xiii

About the Editors xvii

Contributors xix

Part 1 Introduction

Chapter 1 End User Programming on the Web Allen Cypher 3

Chapter 2 Why We Customize the Web Lydia B. Chilton Robert C. Miller Greg Little Chen-Hsiang Yu 23

Part 2 Customizing and Automating

Chapter 3 Rewriting the Web with Chickenfoot Robert C. Miller Michael Bolin Lydia B. Chilton Greg Little Matthew Webber Chen-Hsiang Yu 39

Chapter 4 A Goal-Oriented Web Browser Alexander Faaborg Henry Lieberman 65

Chapter 5 Collaborative Scripting for the Web Allen Cypher Clemens Drews Eben Haber Eser Kandogan James Lin Tessa Lau Gilly Leshed Tara Matthews Eric Wilcox 85

Chapter 6 Highlight: End User Re-Authoring of Existing Web Sites Jeffrey Nichols Zhigang Hua Tessa Lau John Barton 105

Chapter 7 Mixing the Reactive with the Personal: Opportunities for End User Programming in Personal Information Management (PIM) Max Van Kleek Paul André Brennan Moore David Karger m.c. schraefel 127

Part 3 Mashups

Chapter 8 Clip, Connect, Clone: Combining Application Elements to Build Custom Interfaces for Information Access Jun Fujima Aran Lunzer Kasper Hornbæk Yuzuru Tanaka 153

Chapter 9 Intel® Mash Maker Rob Ennals 173

Chapter 10 Programming by a Sample: Leveraging Web Sites to Program Their Underlying Services Björn Hartmann Leslie Wu Kevin Collins Scott R. Klemmer 191

Chapter 11 A World Wider than the Web: End User Programming Across Multiple Domains Will Haines Melinda Gervasio Jim Blythe Kristina Lerman Aaron Spaulding 213

Part 4 Visualization and Exploration

Chapter 12 From Web Summaries to Search Templates: Automation for Personal Tasks on the Web Mira Dontcheva Steven M. Drucker David Salesin Michael F. Cohen 235

Chapter 13 The Temporal Dimension in End User Programming for the Web Eytan Adar Mira Dontcheva James A. Fogarty Daniel S. Weld 251

Chapter 14 Subjunctive Interfaces for the Web Aran Lunzer Kasper Hornbæk 267

Part 5 Natural Language

Chapter 15 Sloppy Programming Greg Little Robert C. Miller Victoria H. Chou Michael Bernstein Tessa Lau Allen Cypher 289

Chapter 16 Going beyond PBD: A Play-by-Play and Mixed-initiative Approach Hyuckchul Jung James Allen William de Beaumont Nate Blaylock Lucian Galescu George Ferguson Mary Swift 309

Chapter 17 Knowing What You're Talking About: Natural Language Programming of a Multi-Player Online Game Henry Lieberman Moin Ahmad 331

Part 6 Accessibility

Chapter 18 Social Accessibility: A Collaborative Approach to Improving Web Accessibility Yevgen Borodin Shinya Kawanaka Hironobu Takagi Masatomo Kobayashi Daisuke Sato Chieko Asakawa 347

Chapter 19 TrailBlazer: Enabling Blind Users to Blaze Trails Through the Web Jeffrey P. Bigham Tessa Lau Jeffrey Nichols 367

Part 7 User Studies

Chapter 20 The Web-Active End User Nan Zang Mary Beth Rosson 389

Chapter 21 Reuse in the World of End User Programmers Christopher Scaffidi Mary Shaw 407

Chapter 22 Mashed Layers and Muddled Models: Debugging Mashup Applications M. Cameron Jones Elizabeth F. Churchill Les Nelson 423

Chapter 23 How the Web Helps People Turn Ideas into Code Joel Brandt Philip J. Guo Joel Lewenstein Mira Dontcheva Scott R. Klemmer 439

References 453

Index 473

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

State- of-the-art research and development on tools that allow users to shape the Web to fit their needs

Editorial Reviews

"The web is becoming not only a venue for people to receive information but increasingly a place for them to create new forms of information and to share them. The transition in the role from being a passive consumer to an active consumer as well as contributor is made possible by exactly the kind of work described in this book." — Dr. Margaret Burnett, Dept of Computer Science, Oregon State University

From the Publisher