Supporting adaptive interfaces in a knowledge-based user interface environment

Abstract

Developing an adaptive interface requires a user interface that can be adapted, a user model, and an adaptation strategy. Research on adaptive interfaces in the past suffered from a lack of supporting tools which allow an interface to be easily created and modified. Also, adding adaptivity to a user interface so far has not been supported by any user interface systems or environments. In this paper, we present an overview of a knowledge base model of the User Interface Design Environment (UIDE). UIDE uses the knowledge of an application to support the run-time execution of the application's interface and provides various kinds of automatic help. We present how the knowledge model can be used as a basic construct of a user model. Finally, we present adaptive interface and adaptive help behaviors that can be extended to the current UIDE architecture utilizing the user model. These behaviors are options from which an application designer can choose for an application interface.