WYSIWYM: building user interfaces with natural language feedback

Abstract

WYSIWYM ('What you see is what you meant') is a user-interface technique which uses natural language generation (NLG) technology to provide feedback for user interactions. To date, the technology has been applied in a number of demonstrator applications, using customised, non-portable implementations. In this demonstration, we introduce a WYSIWYM library package, designed to be used as a modular component of a larger JAVA-based application. We show how the overall design of the package aims to support a range of possible applications using simple configuration options and JAVA subclassing, and illustrate the approach using examples ranging from the simplest proof-of-concept application to a complex web-delivered authoring tool for pharmaceutical leaflets.