Context Analysis: Toward Pragmatics of Web Information Systems Design

On a high level of abstraction a Web Information System (WIS) can be described by a storyboard, which in an abstract way specifies who will be using the system, in which way and for which goals. While syntax and semantics of storyboarding has been well explored, its pragmatics has not. This paper contributes context analysis as a step towards closing this gap. We classify various aspects of contexts related to actors, storyboard, system and time, which make up the context space, then analyse each of these aspects in detail. This is formally support by lifting relations. Finally, we analyse how contexts impact on life cases, user models and the storyboard.