Abstract

In this research, we investigated the development frameworks for mobile/wireless Web applications with a special consideration to the user interface (UI) component. The Web applications running on small mobile devices cannot support the full range of the traditional desktop Web functionality. This is due to the devices' physical and computational constraints. We described how the mobile devices' constraints and their increased diversity and connectivity are affecting the traditional UI development tools, methods and concepts. We also analyzed the development impacts that are emerging from the necessity of building consistent user interfaces for different mobile devices and platforms. In particular, we discussed how the current development frameworks could satisfy the constrained mobile environment while preserving the cross-platform usability. We conducted a comparative survey of these frameworks using different criteria such as data processing, data interactivity and presentation techniques, data transfer, security support, cross-platform or device specific availability, scalability, UI modeling techniques, UI delivery mechanism. We exposed the strengths and weaknesses of each framework while highlighting the areas for future improvements. Our survey highlighted the need for a "universal" high-level framework for mobile UIs development.