Adaptive Communication Assistant for Effective Infobahn Access

The Infobahn offers a sheer unexhaustable source of information services to a growing audience of users. To exploit these resources, users need an easy, economical and efficient access without the need of extra training. The project AiA addresses these problems by the development of an intelligent interface assistant.

The conception of this interface assistant goes far beyond the presentation abilities of conventional user interfaces: While the paradigm of direct manipulation is prevailing today, AiA focuses on the so-called personalization of user interfaces.

Personalization refers to the ability of an interface to adapt its behavior to the information needs, interaction styles, and media preferences of individual users in particular situations. In AiA, we also address the peripheral aspect of personalizing user interfaces. By peripheral personalization we mean that the system personifies itself audio-visually, e.g. as an animated life-like character.

• AiA develops methods for dealing with heterogeneous and distributed information sources which also may provide live data and predesigned presentation material fetched across the web.

• AiA develops methods for the modification of retrieved material, e.g. by graphical annotation and abstracting methods.

• AiA develops methods for the generation of personalized and customizable web layouts including informational graphics, such as tables.

• AiA develops methods for the specification of presentation scripts for interface assistants.

• AiA support the seamless integration of presentation generation and query formulation.

• AiA develops novel navigation aids (e.g. animated interface assistants as personal web chauffeurs).

• Potential application areas include: Electronic commerce, online agencies, hotline services, public information services.