The role of adaptive hypermedia in a context-aware tourist GUIDE

Common problems encountered by tourists when visiting a city for the first time is where to go and what to do, in the limited amount of time available. In effect, cities are large information spaces and in order to navigate theses spaces visitors often require numerous guidebooks and maps. However, because guidebooks are general-purpose references, they tend to contain a significant amount of information of little relevance to interests of a particular individual. When considering the design of a hypermedia system for supporting the information needs of city visitors, the use of "adaptive hypermedia" appears the obvious choice for tailoring the information to the interests of the visitor. However, to meet requirements of this particular application domain, the traditional approach of using a user model as the sole means for driving adaptation is not sufficient. Indeed, one such context-aware tourist guide GUIDE represents an example of a visible application stream in adaptive hypermedia research, one in which applications are context-aware and able to use context, such as the user's current location, to adapt the presentation of hypermedia. The GUIDE project has been developed to provide city visitors with up-to date and context-aware hypermedia information while they explore the city of Lancaster in England.