User Modeling human-computer interaction

1 Introduction
Novels are the best source for new concepts in computer science, because they show us
visions for the evolution of new ways in using computer systems. A good example of
such a novel is from Arthur C. Clarke: 2001 - A space odyssey which was filmed in a
movie by Stanley Kubrick in 1968. In this movie we can see the board computer from
the spaceship ”Discovery” called HAL9000. Some of his features are the recognition of
different users and the adaption of his user interface to each individual user. I think
this shows us the potentiality in the research of the interaction of humans and computer
systems.
So what we are looking for in this paper is a way to personalize computer systems.
That means the computer system can be adapted or adapt automaticly to the needs of
each individual user. To facilitate this, we have to collect some information about the
users and develop a user model with this informations.
Before we can think about a way to personalize a computer system, we have to talk
about some basics in human-computer interaction (HCI) and user modeling (UM). In
the next section we take a look at the tools to build a model of a user with the UM-
Shellsystems. The last section is about the difficulties in the design of personalized
computer systems and the difference between adaptive and adaptable systems. At the
end there will be a short summary of what we have found out in this paper.
2 Basics
First we must talk about some basics about human-computer interaction and user modeling.
2.1 Human-computer interaction (HCI)
Let us begin with a definition of human-computer interaction:
”Human-computer interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation
and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use
and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.” ([Per96])
As we will see the study of phenomena around the use of interactive computer systems
gets more and more important in the last few years. When we take a look at the research
in HCI we can see that there where 3 main stages in the history of research.
3 stages in HCI research In the first stage the primary intention was the design
of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) using windows, icons etc. to create more usable
systems. The next step in the research of HCI was the question, how the people use
the interfaces and components of a computer system. So that the actions not just the
interfaces were focused in this stage of research. Today we want to improve the way
people use computers to work and communicate with.
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