Non-invasive Adaptation of Black-box User Interfaces

Rose, D., Stegmaier, S., Reina, G., Weiskopf, D. and Ertl, T.

In this paper a new method for the non-invasive adaptation of user interfaces is presented. The main idea is not to implement the user interface toolkit as an API, but instead as an object file that redefines the functionality of the API of an already existing toolkit in a generic way based on a so-called preloading technique. Compared to common approaches, the presented method allows us to evaluate prototypical user interfaces with a large number of real-world applications with very little effort. If the prototype proves useful, the new user interface is instantly available for all applications based on the redefined toolkit, which significantly simplifies the spreading of new interaction techniques and ideas. We illustrate the procedure by means of adapting the user interface of a 3D graphical application based on a widely used toolkit for use on handheld computers.

Cite as: Rose, D., Stegmaier, S., Reina, G., Weiskopf, D. and Ertl, T. (2003). Non-invasive Adaptation of Black-box User Interfaces. In Proc. Fourth Australasian User Interface Conference (AUIC2003), Adelaide, Australia. CRPIT, 18. Biddle, R. and Thomas, B., Eds. ACS. 19-24.

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