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2020
Conference Paper
Title
Towards a Context-Sensitive User Interaction Framework for Information Systems
Abstract
With the rise of mobile devices, users operate applications in a large variety of contexts. In each of these contexts, a user may have different requirements and preferences regarding an application's user interface. The context describes the current physical and social environment of the user, his activity and locomotion, as well as the current location and time. Hence, different user interfaces may be more suitable in specific contexts than others. At the moment, a user interface is an integral part of an application, consequently also limiting its usefulness in certain contexts as the information is not presented in the best possible way. Therefore, we propose a way to decouple the user interface from a specific form of representation. Through this decoupling, it is possible to dynamically adapt user interfaces to the user's specific needs in a context, to increase the value of the application for the user. In this paper, we introduce a general framework for the context-dependent adaptation of user interfaces and evaluate it in the specific context of travel information systems. Travel information systems are particularly suited to evaluate such a framework, as they are usually operated in many different contexts - before a trip, during a trip, and after a trip. The adaptation framework transforms between system-oriented messages and user-oriented messages. The user's context, the output device capabilities, and the user's preference, all influence the choice of the actual representation for user-oriented messages. We implemented a prototype of the proposed system and conducted an experimental evaluation focusing on scenarios from the domain of travel information systems.