**5. Intelligent user interface development**

The predominant trend since some years ago is model-based user interface development (MB-UID) in software product engineering and user interface is not an exception [30, 31]. The key concept behind this pattern is to define a set of templates representing the characteristics of the user, the activities, the domain, the sense of usage, and the user interface at various levels of abstraction in a declarative way. A model is a generalized representation of a portion of the world called the system. All of such models are typically stored in the description language of XML-based user interfaces. For intelligent user interfaces, XML has become a de

*Introduction to Intelligent User Interfaces (IUIs) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97789*

facto *lingua franca* [32]. Following this strategy, intelligent user interfaces [33] and hypermedia systems [34] are now being developed today.

Knowledge bases store the information that the device has on both the program being performed and the sense of use. During the various stages of design, the information concerning the program is often collected. In our case, the meta-model used to store information is a slightly updated version of the usiXML1 definition language of the XML-based user interfaces. While description languages like XIML2 or UIML3 may be used for other user interfaces, too. The user interface information involves:


The user model contains certain user features important to the framework (preferences, skills, knowledge). Applying user-modeling techniques [38, 39] to the input data obtained by the sensors and the information already processed, this model is updated. For example, all the activities done by the client in the user interface are documented in the interaction log, so that the machine can use data mining or classification techniques to determine new user information to update the user model.

The platform model comprises the functionality (both hardware and software) of prospective system profiles where the program can be executed. By analyzing the input data from sensors, this model is also updated. For example, if the user increases the screen resolution, the visualization space available for viewing the contents is limited, and so the document structure, or even the contents themselves, is likely to change. Therefore, as the user modifies the screen resolution, the adjustment is identified by a device sensor so that the platform model can be changed accordingly.

The environment model contains the information about the physical world in which contact is performed. The potential amount of information collected from the surroundings would obviously be extremely large, and the developer must

therefore determine which information is important because it has an effect on the application's use. Once more, the data stored in this model is regularly updated by the incoming sensor data. Good relationship management means that all the information contained in the knowledge bases of the previously mentioned models is used efficiently and effectively.

The human-computer interaction utilizes the nature of intelligent user interfaces, leading to the problems that a user interface should still have about access and quality of use [40]. *Usability describes the degree to which individual consumers may use a product to accomplish given objectives with performance, effectiveness and satisfaction in a specified sense of use (ISO 9241-11).* The metaphors already mentioned, the increasing computing capacity and the modern ways of communicating are encouraging the emergence of new methodologies that encourage the consideration of artifacts of interaction other than those historically considered [41]. User-centered programming requires or at least draws influence from each of these methodologies (UCD). User-Centered Design (UCD) is a strongly organized, systematic approach for product creation driven by: (1) specifically identified market priorities that are task-oriented and (2) awareness of user expectations, constraints and desires.
