This dissertation reports the results of research into the provision of adaptive user interfaces to support individuals in the management of their personal information. Many individuals find that they have increased responsibility for managing aspects of their own lives, including the information associated with their jobs. In contrast with traditional approaches to information management, which are generally driven by organisational or business requirements, the requirements of personal information management systems tend to be less rigidly defined. This dissertation employs research from the areas of personal information management and adaptive user interfaces - systems which can monitor how they are used, and adapt on a personal level to their user - to address some of the particular requirements of personal information management systems. An adaptive user interface can be implemented using a variety of techniques, and this dissertation draws on research from the area of software agents to suggest that reactive software agents can be fruitfully applied to realise the required adaptivity. The reactive approach is then used in the specification and development of an adaptive interface which supports simple elements of personal information management tasks. The resulting application is evaluated by means of user trials and a usability inspection, and the theoretical architectures and techniques used in the specification and development of the software are critically appraised. The dissertation demonstrates an application of reactive software agents in adaptive systems design and shows how the behaviour of the system can be specified based on the analysis of some representative personal information management tasks.

Le contexte de cette recherche se situe dans la perspective d’une meilleure compréhension de l’ingénierie de l’Interaction Homme-Machine pour les environnements collaboratifs et nomadiques. Les systèmes d’informations d’aujourd’hui sont devenus de plus en plus collaboratifs et nomadiques. Cette transformation impose deux contraintes à prendre en considération pendant la conception d’interfaces utilisateur. D’une part, dans une application collaborative, les acteurs interagissent les uns avec les autres afin de réaliser un projet en commun. Ces acteurs interviennent dans différentes disciplines et chacun d’eux a son propre savoir-faire. Ainsi, ils ne partagent pas les mêmes informations relatives au projet. D’autre part, les utilisateurs sont mobiles et désirent avoir accès au système quel que soit sa localisation géographique, tout en conservant la confidentialité des informations définies dans le système. Cette mobilité requiert l’intégration de terminaux mobiles dans le système d’information. Cependant, pour des raisons de taille et de poids, les terminaux mobiles disposent de ressources moins importantes que celles offertes par des stations fixes. Devant ce constat, notre objectif est de construire une interface pour une application collaborative et mobile, personnalisée et adaptée en fonction du profil de l’utilisateur et des ressources d’interactions du terminal utilisé. En particulier, notre contribution est d’une part, la proposition d’une architecture pour un système coopératif, et d’autre part, l’introduction de nouvelles notations, basées sur les environnements collaboratifs, pour la modélisation des tâches. Celle-ci joue un rôle essentiel dans la conception d’interfaces utilisateur. Enfin, nous proposons une approche à base de modèles, pour la génération automatique d’interfaces utilisateur personnalisées aux acteurs et adaptables aux caractéristiques de plateformes, basé sur quatre niveaux d’abstraction. L’applicabilité de notre proposition est vérifiée par des exemples d’application dans le domaine de la santé. Nous avons développé un prototype de système collaboratif pour le suivi des infections nosocomiales. L’étude de cas menée à l’aide de ce système a été rendue possible grâce à la collaboration de l’hôpital Édouard Herriot à Lyon qui nous a transmis son savoir-faire. Ainsi, nous avons développé l’outil AICEStudio afin de montrer la faisabilité de notre approche pour la génération des interfaces utilisateur personnalisées aux acteurs et adaptables aux caractéristiques de plateformes / The context of this research work lies in the prospect of a better understanding of Human-Computer Interaction engineering for collaborative and nomadic environments. Today, information systems have become increasingly collaborative and nomadic. This transformation implies two constraints to consider when designing user interfaces. First, in a collaborative application, the actors interact with each other to achieve a common project. These actors come from different disciplines and each has his own expertise. Thus, they do not share the same information on the project. Second, users are mobile and would like to access the system regardless of its geographical location, while maintaining the confidentiality of information defined in the system. This mobility requires the integration of mobile devices in the information system. However, for reasons of size and weight, mobile devices have limited resources compared to those offered by fixed stations, like PC. Given these observations, our objective is to build an interface for collaborative and mobile applications, personalized and tailored according to user profile and the interaction resources used by the terminal. In particular, our contribution is, on the one hand, the proposal of a collaborative architecture. On the other hand, the introduction of new notations, based on collaborative and nomadic environments, for the modeling of tasks that plays a key role in designing user interfaces. In addition, we proposed an approach based on models for the automatic generation of customized user interfaces to actors and adaptable to the platforms’ characteristics, composed of several levels of abstraction. The applicability of our proposal is tested by examples drawn of the healthcare application domain. We have developed a prototype of a collaborative system for monitoring nosocomial infections. The case study conducted using this system was made possible owing to the collaboration of Edouard Herriot hospital that has fed us with its expertise. Moreover, we have developed the tool AICEStudio to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach for generating customized user interfaces to actors and adaptable to the platforms’ characteristics

La personnalisation et l'adaptation d'environnement multimédia pédagogique a pour but de favoriser l'intégration d'application web de formation en fonction de la personnalité de l'apprenant, de sa progression, de ses préférences et de son contexte d'application. Le contrôle de certaines de ces options doit être donné à l'enseignant afin de pouvoir suivre la progression de ses étudiants, de prescrire des activités complémentaires en ce qui est fait en classe et de gérer ses groupes. Nous avons participé au développement et à l'évaluation d'une application pour appuyer le suivi des activités et donner du soutien aux apprenants dans un environnement pédagogique disponible gratuitement en ligne pour l'apprentissage des sciences nommé ScienceEnJeu. ScienceEnJeu est un environnement où l'apprenant peut explorer différents mondes d'apprendre le contenu, comme les mathématiques, l'écologie, la physique, la génomique, etc. Notre système utilise une base de données qui se construit en fonction de conditions comme les activités des utilisateurs dans le jeu et offre la possibilité de lier les activités du jeu à des structures de concepts issues du programme du Ministère de l'éducation de loisirs et du sport (MELS). Une interface permet aux parents ou à l'enseignant de visualiser la progression dans l'environnement d'un étudiant et / ou d'un groupe, voir le modèle de l'élève de superposition sur la structure des activités et des structures de concepts. L'enseignant peut chercher une activité liée à des concepts particuliers et la définir comme une tâche pour son groupe d'étudiants selon un calendrier. Un système de soutien personnalisé fondé sur des règles y est aussi intégré. Ces règles sont des stratégies de soutien construites en fonction de différents paramètres du contexte de l'activité, des préférences de style d'apprentissage de l'élève et de l'aide précédente. De par ces règles, différents avatars animés peuvent être affichés avec des messages qui sont écrits pour soutenir la motivation des élèves selon leur personnalité d'apprenant. / The goal of this case study is to promote, customize and adapt the integration of a multimedia educational environment depending on the personality of the learner, his progression, his preferences and the context of application. The control of some of these options must be given to the teacher in order to follow the progress of his students, prescribe activities in the game and manage groups. We participated in the development and evaluation of an application to aid the monitoring of activities and provide support to the players in a science learning environment available for free online named ScienceEnJeu. ScienceEnJeu is an environment where learners can explore different worlds and learn on numerous subjects such as mathematics, ecology, physics, genomics, etc. Our system uses a database that is based on conditions such as the users activities or progression in the game and offer the possibility of linking the above to the structure of concepts from the program of the Ministère de l’éducation, des loisirs et du sport (MELS). An interface allows parents or teachers to see the progress of a student and/or a group in the environment according to the structure of the activities and/or concepts. Teachers can find an activity related to a particular concept and set it as a task for the group of students on a set schedule. A set of rules based on the personality of the learner in also integrated. These rules support strategies derived from different context specific parameters and the learning style preferences of the student. From these rules, different animated avatars are displayed with written messages to support the learning personality of the student and increase his motivation.

This study attempted to combine the benefits of multimedia learning, adaptive interfaces, and learning style theory by constructing a novel e-learning environment. The environment was designed to accommodate individual learning styles while students progressed through a computer programming course. Despite the benefits of individualised instruction and a growing worldwide e-learning market, there is a paucity of guidance on how to effectively accommodate learning styles in an online environment. Several existing learning-style adaptive environments base their behaviour on an initial assessment of the learner's profile, which is then assumed to remain stable. Consequently, these environments rarely offer the learner choices between different versions of content. However, these choices could cater for flexible learning styles, promote cognitive flexibility, and increase learner control. The first research question underlying the project asked how learning styles could be accommodated in an adaptive e-learning environment. The second question asked whether a dynamically adaptive environment that provides the learner with a choice of media experiences is more beneficial than a statically adapted environment. To answer these questions, an adaptive e-learning environment named iWeaver was created and experimentally evaluated. iWeaver was based on an introductory course in Java programming and offered learning content as style-specific media experiences, assisted by additional learning tools. These experiences and tools were based on the perceptual and information processing dimension of an adapted version of the Dunn and Dunn learning styles model. An experimental evaluation of iWeaver was conducted with 63 multimedia students. The analysis investigated the effect of having a choice of multiple media experiences (compared to having just one static media experience) on learning gain, enjoyment, perceived progress, and motivation. In addition to these quantitative measurements, learners provided qualitative feedback at the end of each lesson. Data from 27 participants were sufficiently complete to be analysed. For the data analysis, participants were divided into two groups of high and low interest in programming and Java, then into two groups of high and low experience with computers and the Internet. Both group comparisons revealed statistically significant differences for the effect of choice. Having a choice of media experiences proved beneficial for learners with low experience but detrimental for learners with high experience or interest. These findings suggest that the effect of choice appears to be strongly influenced by the learner's background. It is hypothesised that encouraging a more active learner role in educational systems would expand the positive influence of choice to a wider range of learners. The study has contributed some weight to the argument that for certain groups of learners, it is more beneficial to view learning style as a flexible, rather than a stable construct. As a practical implication, it seems advisable to collect data on prior experience, interest, and the initial learning style distribution of the target audience before developing environments comparable to iWeaver. [See http://www.adaptive-learning.net/research/media.htm for media files associated with this thesis.]

Digitalisering av gränssnitt i bilar har lett till att fler funktionerimplementeras i gränssnitten, vilket resulterat i ett ökat informationsflödetill föraren. Detta har ökat behovet av att gränssnitt designas för transparens.Då räckviddsmätare i elbilar behöver hantera stora mängder information kanbrist på transparens leda till att förare upplever räckviddsångest. Att designaräckviddsmätare som kan förmedla stora mängder information så att förareupplever räckviddsinformationen som transparent kan därmed leda tillminskad räckviddsångest hos elbilsförare. Tidigare forskning har visat attadaptiva gränssnitt kan hantera och förmedla stora mängder komplexinformation, vilket visar potential för att transparent visualiseraräckviddsinformation till en förare. En litteraturstudie har genomförts därfyra dimensioner av transparens har identifierats, samt fyra designriktlinjerför hur adaptiva räckviddsmätare kan designas. Genom en designstudieimplementerades designriktlinjerna i tre designförslag. Designriktlinjernautvärderades sedan genom att implementeras i en körsimulator för attundersöka om räckviddsinformationen upplevdes som transparent avdeltagarna. Studien resulterade i lärdomar och insikter i hurdesignriktlinjerna kan implementeras vid design av adaptivaräckviddsmätare för transparent räckviddsinformation i elbilar. / Digitalization of interfaces in cars has led to more functions beingimplemented in the interfaces which have resulted in an increased amount ofinformation to the driver. This has increased the need for interfaces to bedesigned for transparency. Because range meters need to be able to handlelarge amounts of information, a lack of transparency could lead to the driverexperiencing range anxiety. Designing range meters that can mediate largeamounts of complex information which is perceived as transparent couldreduce range anxiety among electric car drivers. Earlier research has shownthat adaptive interfaces can handle and mediate large amounts of complexinformation which shows potential for transparently visualizing rangeinformation to drivers. A literature review has been conducted where fourdimensions of transparency have been identified, as well as four designguidelines for how adaptive range meters can be designed. Through a designstudy, the guidelines were implemented in three design proposals. Theguidelines were then evaluated through the design proposals in a drivingsimulator to examine if transparency was experienced by the participants.The study resulted in insights into how the guidelines can be implementedin the design of adaptive range meters for transparent range information inelectric cars.