Coping with Diversity - A System for End-users to Customize Web User Interfaces

Abstract

To address diverse interaction needs of heterogeneous users' groups, user interfaces must be flexible to accommodate for customization that are specific to each user profile. Although, existing web interfaces provide some flexibility, some problems still remain: a) manual adjustments carried out by end users are required for each web application; b) the flexibility provided by current web interfaces is insufficient to address diverse interaction needs of various users' profiles and c) few users are aware about such options to customize the presentation of web interfaces. To contribute to the customization of user interface according to the needs of diverse users, in this work we asses the suitability of a tool that customize web interfaces based on the needs and preferences of end users. UIFlex is a web-based browser plugin that enables users to define their interaction profile. In this task, users are supported by fifteen web-based design rules that were extracted from the literature and the knowledge of authorities. To customize the presentation of web interfaces, UIFlex relies on a set of rules defined for each individual user and "injects" JavaScript codes, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and in some cases HyperText Markup Language (HTML) codes in any page that follows W3C standards. UIFlex was evaluated by 104 users of diverse interaction profiles. The results obtained are promising and suggest that the solution improves the perception that the interactive system performs as desired by users.