AN APPROACH TO THE DESIGN OF A SKILL ADAPTIVE INTERFACE

Computer users vary greatly in their abilities to use a software inter face efficiently. One factor that apparently affects users' efficiency in using an interface is the changes in their skill levels. In this s tudy, an adaptive interface (of menu and command) is presented that dy namically adjusts to users' changing skill levels. The mechanism of an adaptive interface is described and discussed. The validity and usabi lity of the adaptive interface is tested with 40 participants in an ex periment that used a between-subject experimental design for interface style. The independent variables were interface style (menu, command, hybrid, and adaptive) and skill level (starting session and ending se ssions). The dependent variables were task completion time, number of steps used, ratio (of using menu mode over menu and command modes), pe rceived memory load, and satisfaction with the interface styles. The t ask-completion time and ratio data indicate that the adaptive interfac e produced significantly better performance than the static hybrid int erface at the end of the training sessions for experienced computer us ers. No significant differences were found for memory load and satisfa ction ratings across the four interface styles.