The autonomous user interface (AUI) is a revolutionary approach to UI design and implementation that goes beyond the custom themes, icon sets, and color schemes common on many mobile phones and other intelligent devices. Through scriptable, autonomous user interface coding, the AUI lets OEMs, developers, integrators, and even other ecosystem participants completely control and customize the look and feel of the end-user experience.

With traditional design methodologies, application code “owns” the particulars of UI implementation, determining the type, orientation, placement and other attributes of objects on the display (buttons, widgets, etc.), the flow of their use, and the callback code that powers those elements. The attributes of a UI design are thereby set in the original design and are only minimally mutable downstream by channel partners, third parties, and end users.

Some UI and application frameworks support theming, or the customization of color schemes, menu text styles, window frames, widget sets, and other factors. However, the fundamental structure and flow of an application UI remains set in stone—a closed box as imagined by the original design team (Fig. 1).

Robi Karp, CEO, founded Fluffy Spider Technologies in 1995. He holds a BSc in computer science and mathematics from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

On the other hand, the separation of applications and user interface code together with a unique AUI confers unprecedented flexibility and opportunities for branding and adding value in channel. Benefits to this approach include:

Some user interfaces allow theming that allows different presentation methods for the same applications. The separation of application and presentation code provides greater flexibility in design.

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