Challenges and Opportunities of Content Optimization for Freeform User Interfaces

While recent innovations on shape technologies allow for the creation of displays with almost unlimited form factors, current graphical user interfaces still rely on rectangular layouts and contents. This rectangular legacy hinders the progress of freeform displays, which are particularly relevant for pervasive scenarios to display interactive dynamic content where and when needed. By challenging the prevailing layout tradition on rectangular displays, freeform user interfaces raise design challenges which call for exploring the interlink between computational approaches and user interface generation and adaptation. In this position paper we report on previous work on content optimization for freeform user interfaces and anticipate the upcoming challenges and opportunities.