Name of the participant: Christian Jung
Description of the IT-research project:Context sensitivity of applications or systems can be considered as the adaptation of behavior based on information about the context, such as the environment, the user or the current location. Although the term was introduced some time ago, the potential of context sensitivity in modern information systems is not fully exploited.
The consideration of contextual information can improve the usability of the application and the user experience. Furthermore, context sensitivity enables the enforcement of flexible security policies, adequate to the respective situation of the user and device. A consistent methodology for the consideration of context information in the design and development of mobile information systems and applications is therefore required.
Especially in the area of modern mobile devices, context sensitivity offers great potential for increasing security and user experience. Mobile devices have a multitude of sensors and thus a variety of context information sources (e.g. light intensity, acceleration, location information, etc.), whereby these can also be of virtual origin (e.g. Personal Information Manager (PIM): email, calendar, contacts, etc.). Furthermore, such devices are used in a wide variety of situations, as users often switch between different tasks and locations in their professional and private lives. In addition, there is a constant change towards overlapping business and private use. By recognizing contexts and context changes, the user can be supported in separating different professional and private work processes, and the device can adapt flexibly and adequately to the respective application. For example, access to sensitive business data in the private environment can be restricted.
The goal of KoSiUX is to enable a better understanding of contexts and their specification in the software development process. A uniform method for the collection and modelling of contexts and context information also allows the specification to be carried out in a reusable and comparable manner. Thus, complex, aggregated context information can be used to optimize (mobile) business applications. The context sensitivity of such applications represents a unique selling proposition for software vendors as it enhances the user experience. Furthermore, context sensitivity enables the enforcement of flexible security policies that are ideally suited to the current situation. In principle, context information can also support plausibility checks, for example to detect malicious manipulations. A consistent methodology for taking context knowledge into account in the design and implementation of mobile applications enables a systematic development process for context-sensitive information systems.
Software Campus partners: Fraunhofer-Verbund IuK-Technologie, DATEV
Implementation period:01.01.2013 – 31.12.2014
