One way a user interface could be described is that it is much like a tool that enables players to perform actions within a game and with it, accomplish tasks they have at hand. The thing about tools in the real world is that there are a lot of different ones out there. You´ve got big pliers that excel at gripping things, knives that make it easy to slice through materials or something like a hammer that is useful for driving nails into wood. Each tool is different because they are designed to excel at specific tasks. A hammer will never be as good as a knife at cutting things for example. Unlike these real life tools a user interface is expected to be effective at a wide variety of jobs instead of just one.
Of course in real life there are tools that try to be useful for multiple tasks as well such as multi-tools or Swiss army knives. In order for them to do this they have to make compromises. This makes them a jack of all trades, master of none. Multi-tools are useful for a lot of tasks but they are simply less effective at each of them than their dedicated counterparts. A professional woodworker is able to cut down a large tree with a heavy duty saw much easier than with the thin folding saw on a multi-tool. But what if you had a tool that doesn’t try to be several tools at once but rather is a dedicated tool that changes into another dedicated tool based on the task you need it to perform? Would that lead you as a user to be more effective?
This question was the start of my recent graduation thesis and is the core concept of what a dynamic user interface is. A dynamic user interface will add, alter, or remove interface elements depending on the situation (context) a player is currently in. This ensures they have the right amount of information or interface elements at their disposal to complete their goals. I can put this into context a little (pun intended) with an example of how this concept would work in a game.
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