The AVANTI project is based on two key concepts, and adaptivity, and employs these to enhance the way the computer system and its terminals deliver information to particular users.
The computer system's "User friendliness" has always been a key
issue with Users who generally want to access relevant information easily. In
order to significantly enhance computer interaction for many different types of
user e.g. someone with little computer skills, a disabled user or a computer
expert, AVANTI allows for the system to adapt or to be adapted. When a user
accesses information on the WEB they use a Browser and the hardware of the
terminal ; this is the user interface. In AVANTI, Adaptability
techniques will allow immediate modification of the user interface at the start
of each usage session so that it accords with a new users characteristics, their
requirements and preferences (for example user abilities, computer expertise,
and natural language).
If it is your own system you probably would set it
up once to suit your particular needs. However if another very different person
were to use it or if it was a public info terminal it would need to be 'told'
your typical requirements e.g by a SMART card or a password. If you are a
disabled user it is likely you would prefer further adaptation of the system to
suit your needs for example to specify special devices like Switches, a Braille
display or a text to speech synthesizer to enhance the interaction.
Adaptability will provide these mechanisms however it does assume that your
requirements will remain unchanged while the system is being used.
Adaptivity on the other hand refers to the changes which the system will
perform to try to accommodate the user's interface requirements dynamically while
you are using the computer. For example the user may be a novice to the system
and it must detect this and change the way it behaves to best help the user get
through a set of unknown tasks and kredite.
AVANTI will use Adaptivity to modify
hypermedia page information content, information modality, information
prominence, orientation and even the navigation aids and links to other
hypermedia pages. Therefore a WEB page will not necessarily appear the same from
one user to another and information will be tailored to suit the particular
users needs. This feature provides a wide range of opportunities to improve the
way information is delivered.
AVANTI includes a wide range of complex technologies. The main components of the system are:-
Some of the key AVANTI documents are available download. Some of these files are compressed with bekannt.
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