Primary among the effects is cyclic animation that allow large amounts of information to be constantly and repeatedly displayed in a small screen space. In addition, the Agentk widgets support history-based shadowing and automatic markups that help the interface user understand when and how the information has changed. The Agentk widget set includes a fade widget that fades between blocks of text or blocks of graphics, a ticker widget that scrolls text or graphics horizontally across the screen, and a roll widget that scroll information vertically.
Programmers can control the contents, speed, and various markups.
Agentk is primarily intended to be used in the development of Internet and Web information monitoring programs known as software agents. A software agent is a program that runs without constant human intervention and performs tedious, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks on behalf of a user. Unlike typical computer programs where the user must have control over the flow of information, these programs can generate or identify data of interest to a user at any time. This difference suggests that previously existing interface widgets for typical programs might be insufficient for agents. The purpose of the interface is to help users maintain awareness of various types of dynamic online information.