The Adaptive Web

Client: Conor Farrington, Department of Public Health <cjtf2@medschl.cam.ac.uk>

Most websites are designed on the basis that “one size fits all” - for any kind of user or context of use. Your task is to create a tool that allows users to author their own policies for customised appearance and behaviour, for example dark-mode viewing, text subsets, or controls suited to elderly users or those with disabilities. It should also be possible to apply data from one user-selected site (e.g. a weather forecast) to customise the appearance of another. The configuration process should be easily accessible to a wide range of users - so rather than vendor-specific browser plug-ins, a more universal solution might be a configurable online translation service that substitutes alternative CSS and JavaScript through recipes that can be shared with others. Such a powerful tool would also require security provision to guard against misuse.