From user interface design to the support of intelligent and adaptive interfaces: an overhaul of user interface software infrastracture

Research on adaptive interfaces in the past has lacked support from user interface tools which allow interfaces to be easily created and modified. Also, current user interface tools provide no support for user models which can collect task-oriented information about users. Developing an adaptive interface requires a user model and an adaptation strategy. It also, however, requires a user interface which can be adapted. The latter task is often time-consuming, especially in relation to more sophisticated user interfaces.

The paper presents a user interface design environment, UIDE, which has a different software infrastracture. Designers use high-level specifications to create a model of an application and links from the application to various interface components. The model is the heart of all the design and run-time support in UIDE, including automatic dialog sequencing and help generation. UIDE provides automatic support for collecting task-oriented information about users, by the use of its high-level specifications in its application model as a basic construct for a user model. Some examples of adaptive interfaces and adaptive help are presented that use the information that is collectable in UIDE.     

Design and evaluation of an adaptive icon toolbar

As information systems become increasingly important in many different domains, the potential to adapt them to individual users and their needs also becomes more important. Adaptive user interfaces offer many possible ways to adjust displays and improve procedures for a user's individual patterns of work. This paper describes an attempt to design an adaptive user interface in a computer environment familiar to many users. According to one classification of adaptive user interfaces, the adaptive bar described in this paper would be classified as a user-controlled self-adaptation system.At the user's convenience, the adaptive bar offers suggestions for adding or removing command icons, based on the frequency and probability of specific commands. It also implements these changes once the user has agreed to them. Beyond the adaptive bar, the general behavior of the whole user interface does not change, thereby allowing the user to maintain a clear general model of the system. This paper describes the decision-making algorithm implemented in the bar. It also describes the bar's self-adaptive behavior of displaying the frequency of each icon's use through the icon's size. Finally, we present some encouraging preliminary results of evaluations by users.     

Sisl: Several Interfaces, Single Logic

Modern interactive services such as information and e-commerce services are becoming increasingly more flexible in the types of user interfaces they support. These interfaces incorporate automatic speech recognition and natural language understanding and include graphical user interfaces on the desktop and web-based interfaces using applets and HTML forms. To what extent can the user interface software be decoupled from the service logic software (the code that defines the essential function of a service)? Decoupling of user interface from service logic directly impacts the flexibility of services, or how easy they are to modify and extend. To explore these issues, we have developed Sisl, an architecture and domain-specific language for designing and implementing interactive services with multiple user interfaces. A key principle underlying Sisl is that all user interfaces to a service share the same service logic. Sisl provides a clean separation between the service logic and the software for a variety of interfaces, including Java applets, HTML pages, speech-based natural language dialogue, and telephone-based voice access. Sisl uses an event-based model of services that allows service providers to support interchangeable user interfaces (or add new ones) to a single consistent source of service logic and data. As part of a collaboration between research and development, Sisl is being used to prototype a new generation of call processing services for a Lucent Technologies switching product.     

Adaptive personalized interfaces—A question of viability

It is widely accepted that interfaces between computers and users should differ to accommodate individual, or group, needs. One method of 'personalizing' an interface is to have the system form a limited model of the user and employ it to fashion the dialogue to his needs. Unfortunately, little is known about the effect of adaptation on the man-machine interface. Although obvious advantages accrue from 'personalized' interfaces, there are also obvious disadvantages to presenting users with a changing, adapting and perhaps apparently inconsistent interface. The goal of this work is to determine the viability of an adaptive interface through a human-factor pilot study of a simple, specially designed, interactive computer system. The system uses menu-driven selection to retrieve entries from a large ordered telephone directory. This simple task has several advantages: it is a realistic application area for interactive computers; plausible adaptive modelling methods exist and have been studied theoretically; and previous work has determined the best way to display the menus to users. The results of this empirical study support the use of adaptive user modelling. In the (admittedly highly constrained) example system, a computer interface can indeed adapt successfully to every user. Although it does not necessarily generalize to other user interfaces, the result supplies evidence to refute published objections to adaptive user modelling in general.     

Machine learning: A tool to support usability?

One problem facing designers of interactive systems is catering to the wide range of users who will use a particular application. Understanding the user is critical to designing a usable interface. There are a number of ways of addressing this problem, including improved design methodologies using ''intuitive'' interface styles, adaptive interfaces, and better training and user support materials. In this article, we argue that each of these solutions involves pattern recognition in one form or another and that machine learning can therefore aid designers of interactive systems in these areas. We report on experiments that demonstrate the potential of machine learning to user modeling that has application to two of these areas in particular: adaptive systems and design methodologies.     

A NEW DISTRIBUTED PLATFORM FOR CLIENT-SIDE FUSION OF WEB APPLICATIONS AND NATURAL MODALITIES—A MULTIMODAL WEB PLATFORM

Web-based solutions and interfaces should be easy, more intuitive, and should also adapt to the natural and cognitive information processing and presentation capabilities of humans. Today, human-controlled multimodal systems with multimodal interfaces are possible. They allow for a more natural and more advanced exchange of information between man and machine. The fusion of web-based solutions with natural modalities is therefore an effective solution for users who would like to access services and web content in a more natural way. This article presents a novel multimodal web platform (MWP) that enables flexible migration from traditionally closed and purpose-oriented multimodal systems to the wider scope offered by web applications. The MWP helps to overcome problems of interoperability, compatibility, and integration that usually accompany migrations from standard (task-oriented) applications to web-based solutions and multiservice networks, thus enabling the enrichment of general web-based user interfaces with several advanced natural modalities in order to communicate and exchange information. The MWP is a system in which all modules are embedded within generic network-based architecture. When using it, the fusion of user front ends with new modalities requires as little intervention to the code of the web application as possible. The fusion is implemented within user front ends and retains the web-application code and its functionalities intact.     

User interaction in digital libraries: coping with diversity through adaptation

User interface adaptations can be used to address several user interaction challenges in the development of digital library systems. This paper: (a) examines some of the intrinsic characteristics of digital library systems; (b) identifies some of the key Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) challenges in relation to design and architectural abstraction for user interfaces to digital library systems; and (c) develops an argumentation for adaptations in digital library systems. By drawing parallels to recent HCI research into adaptable and adaptive user interaction, the paper illustrates potential areas in which user interface adaptation can provide a useful technique for advancing the quality of human interaction with a digital library system. Received: 18 December 1998 / Revised: 31 May 1999     

Adaptive systems: from intelligent tutoring to autonomous agents

Computer systems which can automatically alter aspects of their functionality or interface to suit the needs of individuals or groups of users have appeared over the years in a variety of guises. Most recently, attention has focused on intelligent interface agents, which are seen as specialised, knowledge-based systems acting on behalf of the user in some aspect of the interaction. Similar requirements for automatic adaptation have been noted in intelligent tutoring systems, natural-language systems and intelligent interfaces. The paper brings together the research which has emanated from a number of backgrounds, and provides a unifying perspective on adaptive systems in general. An architecture for adaptive systems and a methodology for their development are presented. The paper also describes software support for producing adaptive systems, and offers some experimental evidence to justify both the desirability and feasibility of exploiting an adaptive system approach to human-computer interaction     

A glass box approach to adaptive hypermedia

Utilising adaptive interface techniques in the design of systems introduces certain risks. An adaptive interface is not static, but will actively adapt to the perceived needs of the user. Unless carefully designed, these changes may lead to an unpredictable, obscure and uncontrollable interface. Therefore the design of adaptive interfaces must ensure that users can inspect the adaptivity mechanisms, and control their results. One way to do this is to rely on the user's understanding of the application and the domain, and relate the adaptivity mechanisms to domain-specific concepts. We present an example of an adaptive hypertext help system POP, which is being built according to these principles, and discuss the design considerations and empirical findings that lead to this design.     

SX/Tools - An Open Design Environment for Adaptable Multimedia User Interfaces

In this paper a brief review of user interface management systems (UIMSs) and their advantages is given. Shortcomings of current UIMSs and open requirements imposed by industrial application areas are outlined. Among the most important requirements are uniform design mechanisms independent of interaction media, techniques, and styles as well as a straight forward end-user adaptability of user interfaces. A new approach to interactive interface construction, called “direct composition”, is introduced. In this approach all interface objects contain the means for their own modification and design and therefore offer consistent interaction techniques for both the construction and usage of user interfaces. Moreover, end-user adaptability is an inherent feature of direct composition interfaces. The user interface design environment SX/Tools is described to exemplify specific properties of user interface management systems following the principle of direct composition. The impacts of direct composition on user interface design include a uniform interface development process covering tool development, interface development, and “on-usage” interface adaptation. It is argued that the direct composition approach can overcome many of the problems with traditional UIMSs.     

Embedded web server-based home appliance networks

Powerful microcontrollers are used as parts of most home and office appliances of today. Integrating web servers to these intelligent devices will aid in controlling them over the Internet and also in creating effective user interfaces in the form of web pages. Assigning multiple functionalities to a single button on an appliance help manufacturers economize user interfaces, but, this can easily create confusion for the users. Since the cost of web-based interfaces is considerably low, they can be used to provide the infrastructure for the design of simple and more user-friendly interfaces for household appliances. Also, a web page based interface is much easier to change, when needed, as compared to a hardware interface. This paper presents a novel approach to control devices with embedded web servers over the Internet and to form device networks such that their components can make use of one another's services and functions while improving the user interfaces. The main benefits of this approach include its lightweight design, automatic configuration, and, utilization of widely available and tested network protocols of TCP/IP and HTTP. The validity of the approach has been verified through a prototype system working with real appliances.     

基于MVC模式的Web用户界面建模

分析了企业信息系统的Web用户界面开发特性,研究了当前主流前端框架的MVC(模型-视图-控制器)设计模式应用,针对Web前端开发需求及最佳实践方法,提出了一种符合MVC用户界面开发最佳实践的组件化Web用户界面建模方法.设计一套抽象和描述Web用户界面组件的UML(统一建模语言)概要文件,从界面数据模型、界面组件模型到界面交互模型等3个方面完成Web用户界面建模.以一个装修行业定制型ERP(企业资源计划)系统为例,通过用户界面建模实践,验证了本建模方法的可行性、易用性和有效性.     

User Environments and Individuals: Experience with Adaptive Interface Agents

The traditional style of working with computers generally revolves around the computer being used as a tool, with individual users directly initiating operations and waiting for the results of them. A more recent paradigm of human-computer interaction, based on the indirect management of computing resources, is agent-based interaction. The idea of delegation plays a key part in this approach to computer-based work, which allows individuals to relinquish the routine, mechanistic parts of their everyday tasks, having them performed automatically instead. Adaptive interfaces combine elements of both these approaches, where the goal is to have the interface adapt to its users rather than the reverse. This paper addresses some of the issues arising from a practical software development process which aimed to support individuals using this style of interaction. This paper documents the development of a set of classes which implement an architecture for adaptive interfaces. These classes are intended to be used as part of larger user interface systems which are to exhibit adaptive behaviour. One approach to the implementation of an adaptive interface is to use a set of software “agents”– simple processes which effectively run “in the background”– to decompose the task of implementing the interface. These agents form part of a larger adaptive interface architecture, which in turn forms a component of the adaptive system.     

Teleoperation User Interfaces for Mining Robotics

This paper presents a brief discussion of the requirements for user interfaces for teleoperation of mining vehicles and systems. Current commercial interfaces are relatively simple, evolving from line-of-sight remote control systems with the addition of video displays. This level of sophistication has nonetheless allowed teleoperation to be a viable and profitable technique. CSIRO Exploration and Mining research into interface design currently concentrates on fusion of non-visual feedback to the operator and efficient presentation of such information. Case studies based on user interfaces for two experimental teleoperated mining-related systems, the Numbat mine emergency response vehicle and remote highwall mining control systems are described. In both cases the purpose of the user interface is to satisfy the major client requirements for mining systems of robustness, reliability and ease of use by site operational and support personnel.     

Transportation ontology definition and application for the content personalization of user interfaces

Ontologies have been largely exploited in many domains and studies. In this paper, we present a new application of a domain ontology for generating personalized user interfaces for transportation interactive systems. The concepts, relationships and axioms of transportation ontology are exploited during the semi-automatic generation of personalized user interfaces. Personalization deals with the capacity of adaptation of a user interface, reflecting what is known about the user and the domain application. It can be performed on the interface container presentation (e.g., layout, colors, sizes) and in the content provided in their input/output (e.g., data, information, document). In this paper, the transportation ontology is used to provide the content personalization. This paper presents the ontology and how it is used for the personalization of user interfaces for developing transportation interactive systems by model-driven engineering.     

Specifying and controlling multi-channel web interfaces for enterprise applications

When building enterprise applications that need to be accessed through a variety of client devices, developers usually strive to implement most of the business logic device-independently while using a web browser to display the user interface. However, when those web-based front-ends shall be rendered on different devices, their differing I/O capabilities may require device-specific interaction patterns that still need to be specified and implemented efficiently. We present an approach for specifying the dialog flows in multi-channel web interfaces with very low redundancy and introduce a framework that controls web interfaces’ device-specific dialog flows according to those specifications, while keeping the enterprise application logic completely device-independent.     

User-centered approach to adaptive interfaces

Both adaptive and adaptable user interfaces are intended to fit the needs of individual users and their tasks better. A problem with these interfaces is that users must have and use additional knowledge, either to understand the automatic, system-driven adaptations or to adapt the interface on their own. Beyond these two extreme approaches, an automatically self-adapting system and a user manually adapting the system, the approach introduced in this paper strives for a third option, in which users are able to tell the system how to adapt itself. Accordingly, methods include adaptive adaptation (i.e. modifying the adaptation strategies) and implicit adaptation (i.e. changing the underlying models). The applicability of these findings is illustrated in the context of an adaptive action prompting environment.     

A formal model for plastic human computer interfaces

The considerable and significant progress achieved in the design and development of new interaction devices between man and machine has enabled the emergence of various powerful and efficient input and/or output devices. Each of these new devices brings specific interaction modes.With the emergence of these devices, new interaction techniques and modes arise and new interaction capabilities are offered. New user interfaces need to be designed or former ones need to evolve. The design of so called plastic user interfaces contributes to handling such evolutions. The key requirement for the design of such a user interface is that the new obtained user interface shall be adapted to the application and have, at least, the same behavior as the previous (adapted) one. This paper proposes to address the problem of user interface evolution due to the introduction of new interaction devices and/or new interaction modes. More, precisely, we are interested by the study of the design process of a user interface resulting from the evolution of a former user interface due to the introduction of new devices and/or new interaction capabilities. We consider that interface behaviors are described by labelled transition systems and comparison between user interfaces is handled by an extended definition of the bi-simulation relationship to compare user interface behaviors when interaction modes are replaced by new ones.     

Contributions of Dichotomic View of plasticity to seamlessly embed accessibility and adaptivity support in user interfaces

Recent legal changes have increased the need for developing accessible user interfaces in computer-based systems. In this sense, previously existing user interfaces are intended to be modified and new user interfaces are intended to be designed taking accessibility guidelines into account. Typically, model-based approaches have been used when developing accessible user interfaces or redefining existing ones. But the use of static models leads to the development of not dynamically adaptable user interfaces. Dynamic adaptation in accessible user interfaces is important due to the fact that interaction difficulties on people with disabilities may change through use. In this paper, we present some contributions that can be obtained from the application of the Dichotomic View of plasticity in the personalization of user interfaces. With the double perspective defined in this approach, it is intended to go further from a mere adaptation to certain user stereotypes, offering also a dynamic support to real limitations or difficulties users can encounter during the use of the UI. This goal is achieved analyzing user logs by an inference engine that dynamically infers modifications in the user interface to adjust it to varying user needs. A case study is presented in order to show how the guidelines and software support defined in the Dichotomic View of plasticity can be applied to develop a component for a particular system aimed at performing dynamic user interface adaptations with accessibility purposes. This approach includes some innovations that make it different from conventional adaptable mechanisms applied to accessibility in some important aspects.