I2Evaluator: An Aesthetic Metric-Tool for Evaluating the Usability of Adaptive User Interfaces

Abstract

Adaptive user interfaces are introduced to provide various layouts and interactions according to the changes in context of use. Facing the large variety of layouts, it is difficult to have a clear idea of the design possibilities and to certify their usability especially at run-time. Aesthetic metrics have been introduced to ensure the usability of user interfaces. However, by reviewing existing methods and formula for measuring aesthetic metrics, we found that no common consent exists to measure these metrics in a way that aligned with layout complexity of adaptive user interfaces. In this paper we propose an approach to measure aesthetic metrics based on visual complexity of adaptive user interface. We promote a metric model that structures an evaluation tool called I2Evaluator. The results of our tool are discussed in comparison with the subjective evaluation of adaptive user interfaces. The experiment suggests that some aesthetic metrics are positively mapped with human judgment. These findings are a step toward the elaboration of advanced models of adaptive user interfaces performance and the optimization of layout design.