{rfName}
Us

Indexed in

License and Use

Licencia Icono OpenAccess

Citations

1

Altmetrics

Analysis of institutional authors

Abrahao, SilviaAuthorInsfran, EmilioAuthor

Share

September 22, 2025
Publications
>
Article
Hybrid Gold

User Experience with Adaptive User Interfaces: Comparing Performance and Preferences

Publicated to: JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE. 231 1-31 - 2026-01-01 231(), DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112598

Authors:

Gaspar-Figueiredo, Daniel; Vanderdonckt, Jean; Abrahao Gonzales, Silvia Mara; Insfran, Emilio
[+]

Affiliations

Catholic Univ Louvain, Ottignies Louvain La Neuv, Belgium - Author
Inst Tecnol Informat, Valencia, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Valencia, Valencia, Spain - Author
See more

Abstract

Adaptive user interfaces dynamically change their content, presentation, and behavior to optimize the user experience, which has been primarily evaluated using classic usability measures but to a lesser extent by using neurological measures. While the perceived preference of specific user interface elements, such as graphical adaptive menus, has already been studied, no consensus exists regarding their performance and how to substitute a static menu with an adaptive one. To gain insights into how graphical adaptive menus could influence the user experience and to identify any correlation between users' performance and their preferences, we conducted an experiment in which forty participants used twenty graphical adaptive menus while their brain activity was captured by employing electroencephalography to derive four measures (i.e., cognitive load, engagement, attraction, and memorization). User performance was measured using task completion time, specifically the time to select menu items. Statistical analysis suggested which graphical adaptive menus were significantly better or worse than the static menu, our baseline. These results are used as the basis to suggest implications for software developers and researchers to design more effective adaptive user interfaces.
[+]

Keywords

Adaptive systemsAlphaBiocybernetic systemElectroencephalogramExperimentIssuesSignalsThetaUsabilityUser experienceUser interfacesUx

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2026, it was in position 23/129, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Computer Science, Software Engineering.

[+]

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-06:

  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 44 (PlumX).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/304759
[+]

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Belgium; United States of America.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Gaspar-Figueiredo, Daniel) and Last Author (Insfrán Pelozo, César Emilio).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Gaspar-Figueiredo, Daniel.

[+]

Project objectives

La aportación persigue los siguientes objetivos: analizar cómo los menús gráficos adaptativos influyen en la experiencia del usuario; evaluar la relación entre el rendimiento del usuario y sus preferencias mediante medidas neurológicas obtenidas por electroencefalografía; determinar qué menús adaptativos son significativamente mejores o peores que un menú estático en términos de tiempo de selección de ítems; caracterizar la carga cognitiva, el compromiso, la atracción y la memorización durante la interacción con menús adaptativos; y sugerir implicaciones para el diseño de interfaces adaptativas más efectivas basadas en los resultados experimentales obtenidos con cuarenta participantes.
[+]

Most relevant results

El estudio evaluó el impacto de menús gráficos adaptativos en la experiencia de usuario mediante medidas neurológicas y de rendimiento. Los resultados principales indican que: 1) cuarenta participantes interactuaron con veinte menús adaptativos, registrándose actividad cerebral para medir carga cognitiva, compromiso, atracción y memorización; 2) el rendimiento se cuantificó mediante el tiempo de selección de ítems en la tarea; 3) el análisis estadístico identificó menús adaptativos que superaron o empeoraron significativamente el rendimiento respecto al menú estático de referencia; 4) no se encontró consenso entre preferencias percibidas y desempeño objetivo; 5) estos hallazgos proporcionan bases para mejorar el diseño de interfaces adaptativas.
[+]

Awards linked to the item

This research has been funded by the State Research Agency under grant no. PID2022-140106NB-I00 (UCI-Adapt project) and Generalitat Valenciana (GVA) under grant CIAICO-/2021/303 (AKILA project) . Daniel Gaspar-Figueiredo is funded by the GVA through a research fellowship with reference ACIF/2021/172. Jean Vanderdonckt is supported by the EU EIC Pathfinder-Awareness Inside challenge "Symbiotik" project (1 Oct. 2022-30 Sep. 2026) under Grant no. 101071147. These actions are also co-funded by the European Union through the Operational Program of the European Social Fund (ESF) . We would also like to thank Quentin Sellier for helping us in the experiment.
[+]