Adapting Smart Graphics ’ Behaviour to Users ’ Characteristics

Many existing-web based systems aim at making interfaces more user-friendly. Web content designers commonly use graphical components to illustrate concepts or to present numerical data. Adapting dynamically these components to the context in which they are used, has lead to the development of smart graphics. Some common context features are encountered such as platforms and network capabilities. Few systems consider users characteristics in order to provide more interactivity and flexibility. The objective of our work is to investigate this latter issue. We are currently developing a user model based on several characteristics that include preferences and motivation factors. To structure the user model data and support knowledge retrieval, we propose an ontology-based smart graphics framework. The methodology includes validation of this model through experimental study and developing an adaptive hypermedia e-commerce system that automatically learns users’ characteristics and adapts graphical content accordingly. This paper presents an overview of the objectives and the methodology of this work.