Intelligent user interface

{{Short description|User interface type}} {{redirect|Interface agent|an intelligent agent that interacts with its environment|Embodied agent}} An '''intelligent user interface''' ('''intelligent UI''', '''IUI''', or sometimes '''interface agent''') is a user interface (UI) that involves some aspect of artificial intelligence (AI or computational intelligence). There are many modern examples of IUIs, the most famous (or infamous) being the Microsoft Office Assistant, whose most recognizable agentive representation was called "Clippy".

Generally, an IUI involves the computer-side having sophisticated knowledge of the domain and/or a model of the user. These allow the interface to better understand the user's needs and personalize or guide the interaction.

== History == Probably the earliest examples of what could be considered true IUIs appeared in the Intelligent Computer Assisted Instruction (ICAI, aka. intelligent tutoring systems) community, which arose in the 1960s and 1970s<ref name="BurtonBrown1979">{{cite journal|last1=Burton|first1=Richard R.|last2=Brown|first2=John Seely|title=An investigation of computer coaching for informal learning activities|journal=International Journal of Man-Machine Studies|volume=11|issue=1|year=1979|pages=5–24|issn=0020-7373|doi=10.1016/S0020-7373(79)80003-6|url=http://www.dtic.mil/get-tr-doc/pdf?AD=ADA061268|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924160749/http://www.dtic.mil/get-tr-doc/pdf?AD=ADA061268|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 24, 2017|url-access=subscription}}</ref> and become popular (among academics) in the 1980s. Also, in the early 1980s, as expert systems took hold in the AI community, expert systems were applied to UIs (e.g., the aptly-named "WIZARD" system<ref name="Shrager92">{{cite conference |last1=Shrager|first1=Jeff|first2=Tim|last2=Finin|title=An expert system that volunteers advice|book-title=Proc. 2nd Annual National Conf. on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-82)|place=Pittsburgh, PA|pages=339–340|date=1982|url=https://www.aaai.org/Papers/AAAI/1982/AAAI82-080.pdf}}</ref>). In the 1990s the application of plan inference to interaction formed the basis for research<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cawsey |first1=Alison |title=User modelling in interactive explanations. User Model User-Adap Inter 3, 221–247 (1993)|journal=User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction|date=1993 |volume=3|doi=10.1007/BF01257890 |s2cid=5555505 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01257890 |access-date=4 January 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> in what then was named natural interfaces (the term has later come to evolve to mean full-body interaction). Later IUIs, such as Clippy, are more statistically-based, using machine learning methods to decide how to tune the interactive experience to the individual user. In the 2000s this strand of research often is labeled personalization, most often employing various recommender system techniques to adapt the behavior of an interface or an entire interactive system to individual user preferences.

== Definitional difficulty == What constitutes "intelligent" is potentially disputable, as is what counts as an "interface". The field is in practice defined by the community of researchers and the channels they publish in.

== Research == Research in intelligent user interfaces is published in general Human-Computer Interaction conferences and journals such as CHI or UIST as well as in some artificial intelligence research channels such as those hosted by the AAAI, but most importantly there are the dedicated conference series on [https://dl.acm.org/conference/iui Intelligent User Interfaces] (since 1988), [https://dl.acm.org/conference/recsys Recommender Systems] (since 2007), and [https://dl.acm.org/conference/umap User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization] as well as the journal [https://www.springer.com/journal/11257 User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction] (since 1990).

== Humanizing cues == As practical concept of social interface design, social interface is seen in the studies of human-computer interaction (in particular, its computer interface aspect). The basic thesis is that where a computer interface is more akin to another human, it can facilitate correct responses from users during human-to-computer interaction. Software that can provide such humanizing cues often does it by creating interface with human-like quality (such as giving recognizable gender to a software agent).<ref>Tourangeau R.; Couper M.P.; Steiger D.M., '' Humanizing self-administered surveys: experiments on social presence in web and IVR surveys'', Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 19, Number 1, January 2003, pp. 1-24(24), [http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/els/07475632/2003/00000019/00000001/art00032]</ref> Studies are often concerned with how should such agents (like the Microsoft Agent) be designed to make them more appealing (is having facial expressions efficient, should the agent be anthropomorphic, and so on).<ref>Michael A. Cusumano, Richard W. Selby, ''Microsoft Secrets: How the World's Most Powerful Software Company Creates Technology, Shakes Markets and Manages People''. Simon and Schuster, 1998, {{ISBN|0-684-85531-3}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=GixEgGs5qXcC&dq=%22Social+interface%22&pg=PA178 Google Print, p.178]</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== Links ==

* [http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI/aaai.php AAAI Conference] * [https://dl.acm.org/conference/iui International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces] * [https://dl.acm.org/conference/recsys ACM Conference On Recommender Systems] * [https://www.springer.com/journal/11257 Journal on User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction]

Category:User interfaces