Context aware business adaptation toward user interface adaptation

Abstract: The growth of user mobility has created new user needs. Cellular phones, personal assistants and modern communication means are now required for all user tasks. Users want services that are specifically mobile, but they also want to work with and have access to the same applications on their mobile devices as they have at their work place. The mobile system must thus be adapted according to the task and the context (i.e., platform, user and environment characteristics). Usually, adapting an interactive system implies costly User Interface (UI) redesign and reimplementation procedures, with the goal of adapting the business components to the human activity, selecting the interface appropriate to the task and the context. This paper describes an adaptive UI design approach that allows UI to be generated and dynamically adapted to changeable contexts, while preserving the UI's utility and usability. In our approach, patterns are used to connect UI adaptation problems, with their multiple contexts, to usable design solutions. This approach is illustrated by a case study