Adaptive user interfaces
Encyclopedia
An adaptive user interface (also known as AUI) is a user interface
(UI) which adapts, that is changes, its layout and elements to the needs of the user or context and is similarly alterable by each user.
These mutually-reciprocal qualities of both adapting and being adaptable are, in a true AUI
(sometimes referred to as an AUII), also innate to elements that comprise the interface's components; portions of the interface might adapt to and affect other portions of the interface.
This later mechanism is usually employed to integrate two logically-distinct components,
such as an interactive document and an application
(e.g. a web browser
) into one seamless whole.
The user adaptation is often a negotiated process, as an adaptive user interface's designers
ignore where user interface components ought to go while affording a means
by which both the designers and the user can determine their placement, often (though not always) in a semi-automated, if not fully automated manner.
, logical orderings, user preferences, and their surroundings, allowing them to be tailored almost perfectly to "the task at hand."
Though for some this indicates additional opportunities in employment and further innovation, others consider it a cost.
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
(UI) which adapts, that is changes, its layout and elements to the needs of the user or context and is similarly alterable by each user.
These mutually-reciprocal qualities of both adapting and being adaptable are, in a true AUI
(sometimes referred to as an AUII), also innate to elements that comprise the interface's components; portions of the interface might adapt to and affect other portions of the interface.
This later mechanism is usually employed to integrate two logically-distinct components,
such as an interactive document and an application
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
(e.g. a web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
) into one seamless whole.
The user adaptation is often a negotiated process, as an adaptive user interface's designers
ignore where user interface components ought to go while affording a means
by which both the designers and the user can determine their placement, often (though not always) in a semi-automated, if not fully automated manner.
Advantages
User interfaces are malleable to variant user interface paradigmsProgramming paradigm
A programming paradigm is a fundamental style of computer programming. Paradigms differ in the concepts and abstractions used to represent the elements of a program and the steps that compose a computation A programming paradigm is a fundamental style of computer programming. (Compare with a...
, logical orderings, user preferences, and their surroundings, allowing them to be tailored almost perfectly to "the task at hand."
Disadvantages
Flexible interfaces require additional facilities for the servicing of applications, as buttons and menu items are not only moved about a plane on the screen but are also moved through, that is up and down, logical action orderings and hence may not be where they were when the interface was first designed and released.Though for some this indicates additional opportunities in employment and further innovation, others consider it a cost.
See also
- Context-sensitive user interface
- ADaptive User Interface System (ADUS)
Further reading
- from Matthias Schneider-Hufschmidt at Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing
- Hartmut Dieterich, Uwe Malinowski, Thomas Kühme, Matthias Schneider-Hufschmidt: State of the Art in Adaptive User Interfaces and
- David Benyon: Accomodating Individual Differences through an Adaptive User Interface
- Eric Sherman and Edward Shortliffe: A User-Adaptable Interface to Predict Users' Needs