Adaptive Interfaces

Synonyms

Context-aware interfaces; Personalized interfaces

Definition

A specific class of user interfaces that are able to change in some way in response to different characteristics of the user, of the usage environment, or of the task the user is supposed to accomplish. The aim is to improve the user’s experience, by providing both interaction mechanisms and contents that best suit the specific situation of use.

Key Points

There are a number of ways in which interface adaptivity can be exploited to support user interaction. The interaction dimensions that are adapted vary among functionality (e.g., error correction or active help), presentation (user presentation of input to the system, system presentation of information to the user), and user tasks (e.g., task simplification based on the user’s capabilities). Adaptivity along such dimensions is achieved by capturing and representing into some models a number of characteristics: the user’s characteristics (preferences, experience,...