Human Comfort and Security of Information Systems: Advanced Interfaces for the Information Society (Research Reports Esprit. Project Group Hci, V. 2)

The Commission of the European Union, through its Fourth Framework R&D programme is committed to the development of the Information Society. There is no doubt that there will be many radical changes in all aspects of society caused by the far-reaching impact of continuing advances in information and communi­ cation technologies. Many of these changes cannot be predicted, but that uncer­ tainty must not stop us from moving forward. The challenge is to ensure that these technologies are put to use in the most beneficial manner, taking fully into account the rich cultural and linguistic backgrounds within the peoples of Europe. We have a duty to ensure that the ultimate end-users of the technology are involved in the development and application of that technology to help shape its use. Without this active involvement, designers will not understand the individual and organisational requirements of the users, and the users will not understand the impact and applicability of the new technology. Failure on either account will lead to a sense of resentment on the part of the users and a lost opportunity to improve the quality of human life. The work, sponsored by the Human Comfort & Security sub-domain of the ESPRIT programme, has a central part to play in the creation of the Information Society, lying as it does at the interface between the technology and the user. Front Matter....Pages I-XIII Beyond the Final Frontier: Usability at Reuters....Pages 1-13 The New Media Interface: a Case for Reappraisal....Pages 14-19 Long Term Research on Intelligent Information Interfaces....Pages 20-24 ETHICS: User led Requirements Analysis and Business Process Improvement....Pages 25-38 Bridging Software Design and Usability Analysis through Task Modelling....Pages 39-50 MAPI: MUSiC Assisted Process Improvement....Pages 51-59 Usability Evaluation of Software Applications....Pages 60-67 Are You Sitting Comfortably ?....Pages 68-74 Voice-based Dialogue in the Real World....Pages 75-86 MASK: Multimedia Multimodal Service Kiosk....Pages 87-92 Spoken Language Component of the MASK Kiosk....Pages 93-103 Designing Co-operativity in Spoken Human-Machine Dialogues....Pages 104-124 Usability Analysis of Spoken Dialogues for Automated Telephone Banking Services (OVID)....Pages 125-133 Hypermedia-based Telecooperation Support for Marketing Software Products....Pages 134-143 GNOSIS Tool for Computer-based Training....Pages 144-152 Information Navigation in Teaching with DATABOOK....Pages 153-162 GeoSol: Decision Support in Monitoring Water Quality and Crisis Management....Pages 163-173 User Support for Estimating the Passenger Flow in Airport Terminals....Pages 174-177 DIADEM: A Method for User Interface Development....Pages 178-192 Transferring Research Results from the Laboratory to the Market by Means of Intelligent Decision Support....Pages 193-213 Coordination of Multiple Input Modes in User Interfaces....Pages 214-235 Developing User Interfaces for Hypermedia Data Bases....Pages 236-247 Achieving Comfort and Security in the Use of Software Systems....Pages 248-255 OPX2 Intelligent Help: an Example of Intelligent Interfaces....Pages 256-267 Interaction Objects for Explanation....Pages 268-282 Haptic Interfaces for Improving Interaction in Virtual Environments....Pages 283-292 Facial Interaction for Human Machine Interface....Pages 293-305 A Comparison of Design Strategies for 3D Human Motions....Pages 306-319 Back Matter....Pages 320-321 This volume contains the latest accounts of research supported by the European Commission in human-computer interaction and presented at a workshop on Human Comfort and Security in October 1995. Topics of the papers include: removing usability barrier, user centered approach to design, innovative user interface design, virtual reality, intelligent help and decision support. A wide variety of applications relevant for the information society are presented, such as railway travel information, automated telephone banking, intelligent help systems, integrated systems for handling environmental emergencies, 3D human motion simulators, etc. The book gives particular emphasis to making the access and use of information systems easy and comfortable for the users.