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An Optimized GUI Based On Users' Abilities

Posted by Soulskill on from the how-about-a-difficulty-slider dept.

Ostracus writes "Researchers at the University of Washington have recently developed a system, which, for the first time, offers an instantly customizable approach to user interfaces. Each participant in the program is placed through a brief skills test, and then a mathematically-based version of the user interface optimized for his or her vision and motor abilities is generated. The current off-the-shelf designs are especially discouraging for the disabled, the elderly and others who have trouble controlling a mouse, because most computer programs have standardized button sizes, fonts, and layouts, which are designed for typical users."

2 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Tech support by Ma8thew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This will make tech support a lot more fun.

  2. Microsoft already tried this by joelholdsworth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Microsoft already tried this with sort of thing with Office 2000-2003. Remember infrequently used menu and toolbar items being hidden away? I do, and shudder. It made teaching people how to use it a total nightmare. Even using it as an expert user always felt clumsy.

    Good UI is not about making a UI that learns the user - a computer will never be able to do a good job of that. Good UI is about making the app easily learnable. This is much easier than it sounds: simple tidyness and consistency get you 80% of the way toward good UI. But when you start making dynamic UI, consistency is the first thing to go out the window.

    Office 2007 does this quite well (though it is themed differently to all other apps), and so it's much easier to work with than any previous versions of office.