Making it personal: tools and techniques for fostering effective user interaction with feature-rich software

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Most feature-rich software applications that are designed to support productivity and creativity tasks -- such as spreadsheets, photo editors, and 3D modelling -- follow a "one-size-fits-all" model, offering the same user interface and functionality to all users, regardless of an increasing diversity in users needs, tasks and abilities, and contexts of use. New users can be especially overwhelmed by these applications, as these users may not know even where to begin and they struggle in learning and discovering relevant features and commands. While some users do become comfortable with an application over time, few ever become expert enough to engage with the majority of the application functionality. ** In response, modern cloud-based applications now leverage agile continuous development and deployment approaches that, in principle, allow them to harness users' interaction data. This enables quicker cycles for releasing new interfaces. In practice, however, most users of feature-rich applications -- regardless of expertise -- resist interface upgrades, as the changes they bring force users to learn the mappings between old and new application commands and workflows. Although there is no shortage of help available for these users, the onus is on the user to find the sources of information best suited to their particular needs. This is particularly problematic for certain users, especially those beyond the classic knowledge worker. ** In the proposed research, our overarching goal is to draw upon principles and methods of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to investigate new tools and techniques that foster effective user interaction and improve user engagement with modern feature-rich software applications. In particular, we will exploit new interaction techniques, analytics tools, and social platforms to invent novel solutions that fundamentally rethink the design of feature-rich interfaces and the user assistance they offer. Our solutions will focus on how these interfaces can be personalized to accommodate diverse users and their individual needs, and how users can access more personalized targeted in-application help and learning resources.****