Adaptivity in graphical user interfaces: an experimental framework

Abstract Several user and task modeling approaches evolved during the past years and were applied to certain problem areas showing different strengths and weaknesses. A qualitative comparison of these approaches and techniques is difficult since the application and experimentation environments vary. On the other hand, the integration of approved user modeling techniques with different application environments is usually difficult if not impossible. We propose a framework that, in a first step, allows the direct comparison of results of different user and task modeling approaches in graphical user interfaces. The objective is the development of appropriate adaptive help systems for new and existing applications. The system is therefore designed as a client-server architecture to support multi-user operation. The implementation can be easily adapted to different application systems. Applications can be upgraded in a well-defined way, and with a minimal amount of effort by using the approach and tools presented in this paper. A prototype-implementation is presented consisting of an interaction protocoling and managing kernel, a user evaluating module and a corresponding adaptive help system applied to sample medical and CAD experimentation environments.