Enriching the Design and Prototyping Loop: A Set of Tools to Support the Creation of Activity-Based Pervasive Applications

This paper proposes a complete approach to support the modelling, testing and proto-typing of pervasive applications. It describes a set of tools aimed at supporting designers in the conceptualisation of their application and in the software development stage, and proposes a method for checking the validity of their design. For each step of the development life-cycle (design, prototyping and evaluation), we position the proposed approach with respect to related tools and methods. We also present a pervasive application implemented and evaluated using the proposed approach and tools, which facilitates further discussion of the benefits and disadvantages of using the proposed framework. We conclude with propositions for improvements to our comprehensive modelling, prototyping and testing framework for pervasive applications.