A building control system has a controller including a processing circuit configured to transition between multiple discrete operating states by executing state transitions, generate an adaptive user interface including a representation of the multiple discrete operating states and the state transitions therebetween, and automatically learn one or more learned behaviors or preferences of the user. The processing circuit is also configured to retrieve, from a descriptive text database, a description of a selected operating state or selected state transition based on the one or more learned behaviors or preferences of the user, the descriptive text database storing multiple different descriptions of the selected operating state or selected state transition, and update the adaptive user interface to provide the description of the selected operating state or selected state transition retrieved from the descriptive text database based on the one or more learned behaviors or preferences of the user.