Designing Izbushka: Investigating Interactions in Context Zero Environments

Designing computer interfaces and other technologies that interact with users in adaptive ways that attempt to emulate their natural styles of learning is difficult. As technology has become main stream in our daily interactions, adaptive interfaces are key in helping users in many situations. In this article we discuss the preliminary investigation with the intelligent agent named Izbushka and how it can be used to collect various data from human users in an attempt to understand how they learn while interacting with technology. Izbushka as a tool will help to generate new ways of understanding and conceptualizing interaction by presenting users with a “zero-context” environment. Izbushka presents users with a unique interface in an attempt to study user interactions that lack traditional metaphors or ontological grounding typical in many computer interfaces. The Izbushka agent is our first step towards filtering out preconceived metaphorical ideas in order to generate new understanding of human computer interaction.