Methods for Building Adaptive Systems

Publisher Summary To satisfy the requirements of constructing adaptive interfaces, several key methods have been identified that can support their design and implementation. This chapter discusses these methods. An adaptive system needs a means of modeling the variability on which the adaptation will be based; such means are usually termed user models. The chapter discusses the use of these models. To permit change of the user interface, it is essential that flexibility is built into the user interface software through some dialog model. The chapter reviews suitable dialogue specification methods. Variability is often very context dependent, usually being dependent on the particular task being undertaken. This creates a need for a task model. The chapter describes a task modeling tool. It is widely appreciated that the separation of user interface concerns from purely functional concerns is good software engineering practice. To maintain such a separation requires an application model.