Self-designing user interfaces

Abstract

Trends in user interface design have converged onto a set of popular paradigms and technologies. Within this setting there is much room for variation and individualism. The goal is generic interface methodologies that are user device and platform independent. In this paper a strategy is proposed where design decisions are made at run-time. Instead of developers making the decisions the user influences the "design" in a natural manner that does not require special technical insight or skill. A user interface requirements specification is passed from the application to a site-specific interface client responsible for designing, realising and presenting the interface to the user. Design decisions regarding layout, choice of components and paradigm is determined from a combination of explicit and implicit user influences combined by an evolutionary search strategy. User access patterns are monitored and used to evolve site-specific user interfaces. In addition, patterns evolved by different users on a network of computers are exchanged and exploited in the ongoing evolution.