Generative UI Meets Better Readability: Beyond AI-Assisted Design

Using AI to Generate Custom Interfaces for Each User in Real Time

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As digital interfaces become smarter and more adaptive, Generative UI offers a compelling new frontier for improving user experiences. Last year, the Nielsen Norman Group explored the concept, outlining how interfaces might dynamically reconfigure based on task, context, or user needs. There is a tremendous opportunity to apply these principles to improve each user’s reading experiences.

Readability research demonstrates that even subtle typographic changes—like font, text size, letter spacing, and line height—can dramatically affect reading speed, comprehension, and comfort. Now imagine an interface that not only lets you adjust these settings but also learns what works best for you and adapts automatically.

Generative UI isn’t just hypothetical, it’s emerging in real-world products and APIs. We are at a strategic inflection point; Gen UI developers are uniquely positioned to pioneer interfaces that adapt to human perception, shape the future of digital interaction, and maximize end-user reading potential.

Welcome to Generative UI for improved end-user reading performance.

Why Typography Matters

Decades of research and recent studies, utilizing eye tracking, comprehension testing, and analysis of reading speed and accuracy, confirm that typography should not be one-size-fits-all. What boosts readability for one reader might slow another down. Personalized reading formats—such as those with increased character spacing or changes in font weight—can lead to double-digit improvements in reading speed and reduced cognitive load. (See the Readability Research.)

What is Generative UI?

Unlike tools that use AI to design interfaces, Generative UI refers to a system that creates and configures user interfaces in real-time, based on parameters like user intent, device context, or task complexity. It’s a shift from static layouts to dynamic ones that respond to individual needs.

Beyond using a generative AI tool for AI-assisted design, NN/g describes Generative UI as creating a dynamic, custom interface generated in real-time for a specific end-user. The impact of this approach is empowering each end-user to interact with an interface built just for them and their needs in that moment.

An article by Andreessen Horowitz reinforces this vision, emphasizing that Generative UI bridges the gap between static UX patterns and living, evolving digital experiences. Unlike traditional UI, which must be manually designed for different breakpoints or user segments, Generative UI is assembled on demand using context-aware logic and real-time data. This shift fundamentally redefines scalability: instead of building hundreds of layouts, developers define rules and constraints, and the system assembles what’s best for the user at any given moment.

What would a Perceptual Generative UI Look Like?
Perceptually Informed, AI-Generated Interface Adaptation

In Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research, user perception signals refer to measurable, often non-verbal cues that reflect how a user is experiencing, processing, or interacting with an interface. These signals are used to infer cognitive load, attention, confusion, engagement, fatigue, and other internal states. These signals can enable adaptive interfaces that dynamically respond to what users perceive—how individuals see, process, and interact with information.

These perceptual signals can extend (profile-based) Generative UI to create Perceptual Generative UI: adaptive interfaces that reconfigure layout and typography in real-time to align with an individual’s perceptual profile. It captures a critical and underexplored frontier at the intersection of accessibility, AI, and interface design.

Gen UI Applied to Reading

A Generative UI could analyze your reading behavior and automatically deliver a custom-optimized typographic experience, tailored not just to who you are, but where and how you’re reading.

Today, responsive design adjusts content to screen sizes; generative UI goes much further, personalizing content and layout based on user behavior and context. Generative UI creates the opportunity to change what is displayed and how it’s formatted, potentially creating unique interfaces for every end-user’s session.

From Preferences to Personalization:
A Smarter UI for Reading

Traditionally, readers must manually adjust font settings through accessibility menus—if those options even exist. With a Generative UI model:

• Initial personalization could be based on self-reported preferences (larger text, a clean round font, added character spacing, a dyslexia-friendly font, etc.).
• Behavioral data (like scroll patterns, reading time per paragraph, or eye tracking) could continuously refine the experience.
• The UI could dynamically reflow content to match your ideal format without requiring you to make a change.

This isn’t just convenience—it’s cognitive optimization.

Earlier this month, NineTwoThree outlined how this kind of adaptive interface can become a “co-creator” with the user. For readers, this means the system could help create the best reading experience with you, rather than relying solely on designer assumptions or static themes. And because these interfaces are modular and context-aware, they could adjust on the fly as lighting changes, fatigue sets in, or content type shifts.

Example Future Gen-UI

The NN/g article offers an airline example. Generative UI makes it possible to adjust content (like departure city, local weather, and event information) for the user. Further on the layout side of the UI, “Alex has dyslexia, which is documented in her user profile. Her personalized Delta app uses a special font and color contrast to make the content easier for her to read.” Readability Matters argues that, beyond font and color change, additional text characteristics could be included in the modifications.

As NN/g notes, “This individual example may be plausible without genUI, but not at scale. GenUI makes it feasible for Delta to deliver an equally personalized experience to each of its 190 million yearly flyers.”

Key Features of a Readability-Focused Generative UI

• Typographic Profiling
  At onboarding, readers could take a quick calibration test to determine optimal settings.
• Real-Time Adjustment
  As the system detects fatigue (e.g., a slower reading pace or a change in perceptual signals), it may increase line spacing or bump up the font size.
• Cross-Device Synchronization
  Your preferred reading format travels with you—from your phone to your tablet to your desktop.
• Content-Aware Design
  News articles, emails, and novels might each have slightly different optimal settings. The UI adapts per content type.
• Contextual Responsiveness
  Lighting conditions, noise levels, or the time of day could influence how the reading experience adjusts in real-time.
• Invisible Intelligence
  Borrowing from NineTwoThree’s insights, the best Generative UI may operate invisibly—quietly optimizing in the background while you stay focused on the content.

 

The Big Picture: Readability for All

Generative UI provides us with a new toolkit to address an old challenge: helping people read more effectively. When interfaces become smart enough to adapt not just what they display, but how they display it, inclusivity becomes proactive. Everyone (including early readers to aging adults to neurodivergent learners) stands to benefit.

In addition to end-user benefits, business outcomes are also improved. Gen UI can increase engagement and time-on-page, and enable differentiation through a better UX. Customer support costs may be reduced. Companies are also able to improve accessibility compliance at scale.

Beyond long-form reading, reading is critical in most other verticals. For example, education, finance dashboards, and healthcare portals will also benefit from better user reading experiences.

At Readability Matters, we’re excited to see design trends and emerging technologies converge around personalization. When we stop designing for the average reader and start designing for each individual’s best reading self, we unlock real potential. Companies implementing Generative UI will be positioned to deliver uniquely personal digital experiences, boosting end-user reading experiences and performance. Their apps won’t just show users what they want to read, but display the content how they want to read it, making the entire interaction feel highly intuitive.

Let’s build a future where readability is intelligently responsive and deeply personal.

 

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Considerations and Further Reading:

 

Actions for Application Builders

• Audit your product for static UX elements that could benefit from personalization.
• Start capturing user behavior data that could inform real-time UI changes.
• Explore APIs or frameworks that allow real-time assembly of UI components.

 

Learn More

Generative UI and Outcome-Oriented Design from Nielsen Norman Group. This article explores how generative user interfaces can create highly personalized and adaptive experiences in real-time by shifting design focus towards user outcomes and defining constraints for AI.

How Generative AI Is Remaking UI/UX Design from Andreessen Horowitz. This article provides insights into how generative AI is reshaping UI/UX design, including examples and the landscape of AI-powered interface creation.

Readability Matters’ Research page highlights work from the interdisciplinary research community with over 100 researchers. 30+ academic papers are showcased demonstrating personalized text formatting can produce instant improvements in reading speed, accuracy, and comprehension across all reader groups.

The Readability Consortium is a readability research community founded by Adobe, Google, University of Central Florida and Readability Matters. The Readability Consortium (TRC) is a cross-industry, interdisciplinary research initiative focused on advancing personalized digital reading experiences.

Companies Developing GenUI Tools

Adobe Target delivers real‑time, behavior‑driven personalization, using Adobe Sensei and Real‑Time CDP to dynamically adjust content and layout.

Thesys C1 is designed to generate different UIs dynamically at runtime based on user intent and context. It enables developers to build interfaces that adapt per user interaction during a live session.

Articles:

Generative UI: The Future of User Interface Design from Centizen Inc. This article provides a comprehensive overview of Generative UI, its differences from traditional UI, how it works, and its impact on user experience.

Towards a Working Definition of Designing Generative User Interfaces from arXiv. This academic paper offers a working definition of Generative UI through literature review, expert interviews, and case studies, highlighting emerging design models.

Generative UI for product managers: A new frontier from Mind the Product. This piece explores the potential, challenges, and practical steps for product managers regarding Generative UI.

An introduction to Generative UIs from UX Collective. This guide explains what Generative UIs are, how they work, and their implementation, discussing benefits for both users and developers.