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From: chalek@rosings.crd.ge.com (catherine chalek)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: adaptive user interfaces
Message-ID: <20689@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>
Date: 18 Jun 91 15:00:04 GMT
References: <1991Jun12.182221.10179@cs.sfu.ca> <SVEN.91Jun16141303@laverne.cs.widener.edu> <1991Jun16.205355.12316@psych.toronto.edu> <1991Jun17.190956.11212@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
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Reply-To: chalek@rosings.crd.ge.com (catherine chalek)
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In the discussions on adaptive user interfaces, there seems to be some
confusion between customizable interfaces and adaptive interfaces.  
It seems to me that adaptive interfaces are interfaces that change
themselves based upon whatever rules the developers coded.  The only
part that the user plays is to perhaps initiate the adaption and 
accept/reject the adaption.  In a customizable interface, the user
is responsible for initiating the changes and specifying the changes
(selecting from among the possible changes).  What she/he can change
is of course limited to what the developers allow users to change.
In the first case, the user wouldn't have to have much proficiency with
the system.  In the second case, she/he probably would.

catherine