Applying user modeling to human-computer interaction design

Since the early 1980's, intelligent and adaptive systems have appeared and have been written about in a variety of guises. Although there are many differences between such systems as adaptive user interfaces, intelligent help systems and explanation systems, there are many similarities as well. The most notable of these is that they all require user models to be maintained and exploited as part of their designs. Furthermore, they share the same high level architecture. This paper discusses the use of models in human-computer interaction design and offers a common architecture for these adaptive systems. A methodology for the development of these systems is presented.This is based on our experimental work which is reported fully in Jennings, Benyon and Murray, 1991 and Jennings and Benyon, in press)