Improving information technology systems through adaptive user interfaces

Summary form only given. This paper describes past and present research efforts designed to improve information technology (IT) systems through the creation of adaptive user interfaces. The "information overload" problem predict over two decades ago by Toffler (1970) in his work 'Future shock is now a reality'. The amount of information constantly received on computer screens via programs and the Internet is, at times, overwhelming. Many of us seem to be drowning in a sea of information. There is no reason to believe that the future will be better. Furthermore, since computers have either voluntarily or involuntarily become an integral part of life for a vast majority of people with varying degrees of computer skills, new tools are needed to bridge the gap and serve as a cooperative link between the human and computer. In an effort to alleviate the disparity between individual skill levels, research is being conducted to develop semi-intelligent, semi-autonomous agents to serve as software surrogates for the human user. These interface agents are designed to learn and adapt to satisfy an individual's established and changing information needs. This paper presents results of a study conducted to improve the "brains" of these interface agents. A comparative study was performed to determine which method used to implement the learning process produced the best results.