Designing the Distributed User Interface: Case Studies on Building Distributed Applications

Building a distributed user interface (DUI) application should ideally not require any additional effort beyond that necessary to build a non-distributed interface. In practice, however, DUI development is fraught with several technical challenges such as synchronization, resource management, and data transfer. In this paper, we present three case studies on building distributed user interface applications: a distributed media player for multiple displays and controls, a collaborative search system integrating a tabletop and mobile devices, and a multiplayer Tetris game for multi-surface use. Drawing from these studies, we derive general challenges for DUI development in terms of design, architecture, and implementation. We conclude with some general guidelines for practical DUI application development.