Developers and designers of interactive digital systems are faced with many chal-lenges, some less visible than others. One of these more subtle balancing acts is be-tween personalized user support and unrestricted user autonomy. It raises the ques-tion how a supportive design that takes a user’s needs and preferences into account can be implemented within a technical system while at the same time allowing the user to make decisions freely without restrictions. How can autonomy by design be incorporated into the process? In this paper we describe the breadth of choice heu-ristic, which can show where the support of the user by the system stops and a re-striction of the user’s autonomy begins. To this end, we reference existing literature on similar issues, develop our own conclusions and apply them to our work in a pro-ject on IT for elderly people.    «

Developers and designers of interactive digital systems are faced with many chal-lenges, some less visible than others. One of these more subtle balancing acts is be-tween personalized user support and unrestricted user autonomy. It raises the ques-tion how a supportive design that takes a user’s needs and preferences into account can be implemented within a technical system while at the same time allowing the user to make decisions freely without restrictions. How can autonomy by design be inco...    »