User modeling

About: User modeling is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 10701 publications have been published within this topic receiving 278012 citations.

Modeling the user in natural language systems

Abstract: For intelligent interactive systems to communicate with humans in a natural manner, they must have knowledge about the system users. This paper explores the role of user modeling in such systems. It begins with a characterization of what a user model is and how it can be used. The types of information that a user model may be required to keep about a user are then identified and discussed. User models themselves can vary greatly depending on the requirements of the situation and the implementation, so several dimensions along which they can be classified are presented. Since acquiring the knowledge for a user model is a fundamental problem in user modeling, a section is devoted to this topic. Next, the benefits and costs of implementing a user modeling component for a system are weighed in light of several aspects of the interaction requirements that may be imposed by the system. Finally, the current state of research in user modeling is summarized, and future research topics that must be addressed in order to achieve powerful, general user modeling systems are assessed.

User interface mechanism for manipulating context in computer management applications

Abstract: Contextual information that is presented to the user of a windows-based computer environment through the user interface of a single open window of the environment may be readily filtered and changed by appropriate manipulation by the user of a context control feature of the user interface. Manipulation of the context control feature allows the user to look at a given set of objects or tasks from different views or perspectives. It also provides the user with access to a different set of objects, thereby allowing the user to look at a different set of objects or tasks from the same view or perspective as an earlier set of objects or tasks.

Interfaces for eliciting new user preferences in recommender systems

Abstract: Recommender systems build user models to help users find the items they will find most interesting from among many available items One way to build such a model is to ask the user to rate a selection of items The choice of items selected affects the quality of the user model generated In this paper, we explore the effects of letting the user participate in choosing the items that are used to develop the model We compared three interfaces to elicit information from new users: having the system choose items for users to rate, asking the users to choose items themselves, and a mixed-initiative interface that combines the other two methods We found that the two pure interfaces both produced accurate user models, but that directly asking users for items to rate increases user loyalty in the system Ironically, this increased loyalty comes despite a lengthier signup process The mixed-initiative interface is not a reasonable compromise as it created less accurate user models with no increase in loyalty

A learning agent for wireless news access

Abstract: We describe a user interface for wireless information devices, specifically designed to facilitate learning about users' individual interests in daily news stories. User feedback is collected unobtrusively to form the basis for a content-based machine learning algorithm. As a result, the described system can adapt to users' individual interests, reduce the amount of information that needs to be transmitted, and help users access relevant information with minimal effort.

A user interface management system

Abstract: The design and construction of the user interface to interactive systems is receiving increased attention. This paper describes a user interface management system that allows a designer/developer to focus on the logical functionality of an application without the usual bookkeeping associated with a conventional programming language. The user interface management system contains two components: a special purpose, application independent dialogue specification language and a run-time interpreter that provides a number of interaction extensions not possible with procedure libraries.