Taking context into account in conceptual models using a Model Driven Engineering approach

ContextIn public transport, travelers (considered as information systems users) do not have the same objectives and/or concerns at the same time. For this reason it is not always easy to provide them with the right information at the right time. If personalizing the information to the user allows to do this to some extend it is not enough since the information could also depend on the use of the context and the environment (e.g., place, time, etc.).ObjectiveThis paper proposes a solution allowing the context to be managed inside an application’s conceptual models in order to provide more flexible web applications from the user’s point of view.MethodOur work is based on a modeling method using the Model Driven Engineering (MDE) approach and on practical field experiences permitting us to validate our solution. Our domain of application is personalized transport information.ResultsIntroducing the notion of context into rules and decision trees that are used inside conceptual models allowed us to incorporate context as important information for personalizing web applications.ConclusionThe context should be integrated into an application during the modeling phase to allow a smooth integration inside the application and to facilitate the evolution over time. Our solution offers a better user’s experience through an extended personalization of web applications.

► This study presents a solution to integrate the notion of context into conceptual models.
► We create a new modeling method, compliant with a Model Driven Engineering (MDE) approach, for managing the context.
► We show how to extend the personalization of web applications by introducing the notion of context during the modeling phase.
► We show how our approach could be used in the field of transportation.
► We conclude that our approach offers new opportunities to improve the users’ experience of web applications.