Demonstrating The Viability Of Automatically Generated User Interfaces

Synopsis:

This article examines the viability of automatically generated interfaces in increasing usability and consistency among interfaces found in some appliances.

Pros:

1) Creating a consistent interface for interaction can definitely help reduce the learning curve involved while switching between brands or models of devices.
2) Test subjects could perform tasks twice as fast, and the success rate for completing the tasks in the given timeframe was fourfold when they used an automatically generated user interface consistent with their past experiences.
3) The authors of the printer specifications did not have to deviate from their regular style of writing. They just had to provide detailed instructions for each of the features included.
4) Debugging the specification to ensure compatibility among devices needs to be done just once before it can be ported to any platform.
5) Allowed users to achieve expertise quicker than if they had used the proprietary interface.
6) Did not reduce the efficiency of power users.
7) Overall, I thought that the testing procedures used were extensive and provided an accurate look into the systems efficiency in the real world.

Cons:

1) In an attempt to allow easy access to the most common features between the two devices the system hid the more frequently used features in dialog boxes. Bad design guidelines from one of the printer interfaces were carried over to the automatically generated one.
2) Consolidating interfaces among devices which have very different features might be difficult since the system emphasizes on highlighting common features.
3) Some of the tasks assigned to users resulted in no significant increase in efficiency when compared with efficiency while using proprietary software. Although it must be argued that the system did not reduce efficiency in any of the tasks.