Who are my users and how I can help them? The quest of user-adaptive interaction

Abstract: The Web and the rapidly increasing availability of sophisticated media have dramatically enhanced the potential of computers as interactive tools that support a large variety of users in a growing range of tasks. However, designing complex interactive systems that satisfy the needs of individual users from highly heterogeneous user groups is very difficult. This talk focuses on research that aims to overcome this difficulty by investigating how to devise interactive systems that can autonomously, dynamically and unobtrusively adapt to the specific needs of each individual user, namely research in User-Adaptive Interaction (UAI). UAI is a highly interdisciplinary field at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Cognitive Science. I will present some examples of UAI researcher that we are conducting in our laboratory, including how to devise User-Adaptive Visualizations, how to provide personalized support to learning from novel educational systems (e.g., interactive simulations and educational games), and how model relevant user properties in real time by leveraging advanced input sources such as eye-tracking.