An evaluation of advanced user interface customization

  • Authors:

  • Clemens Zeidler;Christof Lutteroth;Gerald Weber

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand;University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand;University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 25th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference: Augmentation, Application, Innovation, Collaboration
  • Year:
  • 2013

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Abstract

Many graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are customizable. While there are many approaches to user interface customization, most of them are fairly simplistic, e.g., they only allow users to customize menus and toolbars. However, one can think of more advanced customization approaches that allow more complex GUI layout customizations and even functional customization. Functional customization goes deeper into the application logic and makes it possible to change the behavior of an application. In this paper we target two open questions: (1) Are technical users able to use such advanced customization approaches? (2) Would technical users apply such approaches in practice? We introduce prototypical systems for layout and functional customization of GUIs. In a user study, these systems were evaluated to address the research questions mentioned above. 18 technical users were given customization tasks for three layout and two functional customization scenarios. The participants were observed during the tasks and were asked to complete questionnaires. The results indicate that users are able to use the proposed customization systems, and would also employ them in practice. This suggests that it would be beneficial to include such customization facilities into current and future applications.