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.

翻译：在软件应用中，用户模型可用于描述应用程序典型用户的特征剖面，包括人格特质、偏好、技能等。理论上，这将使应用程序能够实现自适应行为，从而带来更好的用户体验。然而，用户模型似乎既未成为标准建模语言的组成部分，在当前模型驱动工程（MDE）方法中也不常见。本文通过系统性文献综述，分析了MDE中现有用户建模方案的现状并识别其局限性。研究结果表明，目前缺乏统一且完整的用户建模视角。相反，我们观察到大量零散且局部的提案仅考虑简单的用户维度，且缺乏适当的工具支持。这限制了能够更好满足用户特定需求的丰富用户界面的实现。因此，我们希望本分析能引发关于用户模型重要性及其纳入MDE流程的讨论。特别是在当前背景下，得益于人工智能技术的兴起，基于多维度用户特征的个性化定制正日益成为可能。