Engineering Slidable Graphical User Interfaces with Slime

Intra-platform plasticity regularly assumes that the display of a computing platform remains fixed and rigid during interactions with the platform in contrast to reconfigurable displays, which can change form depending on the context of use. In this paper, we present a model-based approach for designing and deploying graphical user interfaces that support intra-platform plasticity for reconfigurable displays. We instantiate the model for E3Screen, a new device that expands a conventional laptop with two slidable, rotatable, and foldable lateral displays, enabling slidable user interfaces. Based on a UML class diagram as a domain model and a SCRUD list as a task model, we define an abstract user interface as interaction units with a corresponding master-detail design pattern. We then map the abstract user interface to a concrete user interface by applying rules for the reconfiguration, concrete interaction, unit allocation, and widget selection and implement it in JavaScript. In a first experiment, we determine display configurations most preferred by users, which we organize in the form of a state-transition diagram. In a second experiment, we address reconfiguration rules and widget selection rules. A third experiment provides insights into the impact of the lateral displays on a visual search task.