Minimalist user modelling in a complex commercial software system

While user modelling has produced many research-based systems, comparativel y little progress has been made in the development of user modelling compon ents for commercial software systems. The development of minimalist user mo delling components which are simplified to provide "just enough" assistance to a user through a pragmatic adaptive user interface is seen by many as a n important step toward this goal. This paper describes the development, im plementation, and evaluation of a minimalist user modelling component for t he Tax and Investment Management Strategizer (TIMS), a complex commercial s oftware system for financial management. This user modelling component mana ges several levels of adaptations designed to assist novice users in dealin g with the complexity of this software package. Important issues and consid erations for the development of user modelling components for commercial so ftware systems and the evaluation of such systems in commercial settings ar e also discussed.