Citizen-Led Personalization of User Interfaces: Investigating How People Customize Interfaces for Themselves and Others
Sérgio Alves, Ricardo Costa, Kyle Montague, Tiago Guerreiro
TL;DR
The paper investigates democratizing UI personalization through citizen-led customization, introducing GitUI and a two-week study with nine participants to examine self-customization, request-based assistance, and helping others. It finds that users, regardless of expertise, prefer tailoring UIs for others over themselves, and that self-customization requires ideation and guidance. The study highlights motivation factors (the daily challenge and altruistic rewards) and proposes community-based mechanisms (templates, feedback, gamification) to sustain engagement. The work contributes an empirical analysis, a functional prototype, and a roadmap for future community-based UI personalization efforts with emphasis on collaboration, templates, and clear communication channels.
Abstract
User interface (UI) personalization can improve usability and user experience. However, current systems offer limited opportunities for customization, and third-party solutions often require significant effort and technical skills beyond the reach of most users, impeding the future adoption of interface personalization. In our research, we explore the concept of UI customization for the self and others. We performed a two-week study where nine participants used a custom-designed tool that allows websites' UI customization for oneself and to create and reply to customization assistance requests from others. Results suggest that people enjoy customizing for others more than for themselves. They see requests as challenges to solve and are motivated by the positive feeling of helping others. To customize for themselves, people need help with the creative process. We discuss challenges and opportunities for future research seeking to democratize access to personalized UIs, particularly through community-based approaches.