User Modeling in Model-Driven Engineering: A Systematic Literature  Review

[en] In software applications, user models can be used to specify the profile of the typical users of the application, including personality traits, preferences, skills, etc. In theory, this would enable an adaptive application behavior that could lead to a better user experience. Nevertheless, user models do not seem to be part of standard modeling languages nor common in current model-driven engineering (MDE) approaches. In this paper, we conduct a systematic literature review to analyze existing proposals for user modeling in MDE and identify their limitations. The results showcase that there is a lack of a unified and complete user modeling perspective. Instead, we observe a lot of fragmented and partial proposals considering only simple user dimensions and with lack of proper tool support. This limits the implementation of richer user interfaces able to better support the user-specific needs. Therefore, we hope this analysis triggers a discussion on the importance of user models and their inclusion in MDE pipelines. Especially in a context where, thanks to the rise of AI techniques, personalization, based on a rich number of user dimensions, is becoming more and more of a possibility.

Research center :

LIST - Luxembourg Institute of Science & Technology

Precision for document type :

Review article

Disciplines :

Computer science

Author, co-author :

CONRARDY, Aaron David ; University of Luxembourg

CAPOZUCCA, Alfredo ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine (FSTM) > Department of Computer Science (DCS)

CABOT, Jordi ; University of Luxembourg > Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SNT) > PI Cabot

External co-authors :

Language :

English

Title :

User Modeling in Model-Driven Engineering: A Systematic Literature Review

Publication date :

May 2025

Journal title :

Journal of Object Technology

eISSN :

1660-1769

Publisher :

AITO - Association Internationale pour les Technologies Objets

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

2:1

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Focus Area :

Computational Sciences

Additional URL :

https://www.jot.fm/contents/issue_2025_02/a12.html

FnR Project :

FNR16544475 - BESSER - Better Smart Software Faster (Besser) - An Intelligent Low-code Infrastructure For Smart Software, 2020 (01/04/2023-30/09/2028) - Jordi Cabot

Name of the research project :

U-AGR-7344 - P20/IS/16544475/BESSER/Cabot - CABOT Jordi

Funders :

FNR - Fonds National de la Recherche

Funding number :

16544475

Data Set :

User Modeling in MDE - Data Sheet and Scripts

Commentary :

Accepted and presented at the 21st European Conference on Modelling Foundations and Applications (ECMFA 2025)

Available on ORBilu :

since 17 June 2025

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