Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!neat.cs.toronto.edu!mgreen
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: mgreen@cs.toronto.edu (Marc Green)
Subject: re: adaptive interfaces
Message-ID: <91Jun19.155043edt.6300@neat.cs.toronto.edu>
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Date: 19 Jun 91 19:51:03 GMT
Lines: 21

From the tone of the posts, it's clear that many people view adaptive
interfaces as some sort of HCI silver bullet. Well, there as many
arguments to be made against adaptive interfaces as for them.

The major problem is that the system's response is not completely
predictable. People like machines to be slaves and to know that the
same thing will have everytime. Moreover, an adaptive interface is
going to make a lot of mistakes. Any diagnostic system, including ones
which have to diagnose user intentions, makes errors. And Imagine the
poor user when he tries to do something new for the first time and the
interface keeps classifying as it some previously learned intention.
You've got all the problems of HCI and all the problems of AI rolled
into one. 

I'd put my money on customizable systems or systems which give advice
on how to use more advanced features to accomplish a task more easily.
This still puts the user in control, and that's where he wants to be.

Marc Green
Trent University