Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 3
A Generic Method for Personalizing
Interactive Systems: Application
to Traveler Information
3.1.
Introduction
Following the wide development of distributed and networked information
sources, more specifically on the Internet, the advantage of benefiting from
reference points, such as “portal” sites that offer facilitated, even personalized
access to all available resources became apparent. The personalization of
information systems (ISs) aims to provide an adaptive and intelligent human-
machine interaction with the goal of improving the efficiency of the interaction as
well as the usability (in the sense of [NIE 93]) of systems [MOU 09]. It must offer
the possibility of accessing ever greater quantities of information on increasingly
varied media and support increasingly different interaction modes.
In order to meet the usability criteria and enable the user to easily find the
information he wants, personalization appears to be an appropriate solution
[MOU 09], [PET 03a]. In addition to the personalization of delivered information,
other aspects of the interaction can be subject to personalization in this context, such
as the consideration of different interaction modes (vocal, textual, etc.), the
consideration of different interaction platforms (PC, personalized digital assistant or
PDA, cell phone, etc.) and user assistance. Our objective is to provide a support to
the design of personalization systems that covers these different aspects. The
