Using Constraints to Enable Flexible Access and Interaction on the Web

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Constructing and maintaining web sites is more difficult than one would like, and the tools for browsing are often not flexible enough. The PI will investigate the use of constraints to enable authors to capture the essential properties of the layout, in a way that allows flexible display for a variety of browser types and output media. The viewer will be able to impose constraints as well, for example on desired browser width or minimum font size. Some of these constraints may be requirements, and others preferences. The appearance of the final document will in effect be the result of a negotiation between author and viewer that is carried out by solving the combined sets of constraints from each. A second area of investigation will be the use of constraints to describe dynamic information, for example animations for process visualization; again, the final animation will be the result of solving the combined constraints from author and viewer. This research will be driven by a set of real-world examples arising from an ongoing interdisciplinary research project on land use, transportation, and environmental modeling. In addition to being of intrinsic interest, this application is intended to be an archetypal example of using the internet to further civic participation by diverse stakeholders using complex information sources. This project will yield a qualitative leap in the power and flexibility of the world wide web for complex and varied authoring and viewing tasks. Web authors should be able to focus on the semantic content of their documents rather than on visual formatting; viewers will be able to choose from a wider range of devices and viewing preferences, while still seeing well-formatted information