Human Comfort and Security of Information Systems

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.

Contenu

Beyond the Final Frontier: Usability at Reuters.- The New Media Interface: a Case for Reappraisal.- Long Term Research on Intelligent Information Interfaces.- ETHICS: User led Requirements Analysis and Business Process Improvement.- Bridging Software Design and Usability Analysis through Task Modelling.- MAPI: MUSiC Assisted Process Improvement.- Usability Evaluation of Software Applications.- Are You Sitting Comfortably?.- Voice-based Dialogue in the Real World.- MASK: Multimedia Multimodal Service Kiosk.- Spoken Language Component of the MASK Kiosk.- Designing Co-operativity in Spoken Human-Machine Dialogues.- Usability Analysis of Spoken Dialogues for Automated Telephone Banking Services (OVID).- Hypermedia-based Telecooperation Support for Marketing Software Products.- GNOSIS Tool for Computer-based Training.- Information Navigation in Teaching with DATABOOK.- GeoSol: Decision Support Services in Monitoring Water Quality and Crisis Management.- User Support for Estimating the Passenger Flow in Airport Terminals.- DIADEM: A Method for User Interface Development.- Transferring Research Results from the Laboratory to the Market by Means of Intelligent Decision Support.- Coordination of Multiple Input Modes in User Interfaces.- Developing User Interfaces for Hypermedia Data Bases.- Achieving Comfort and Security in the Use of Software Systems.- OPX2 Intelligent Help: an Example of Intelligent Interfaces.- Interaction Objects for Explanation.- Haptic Interfaces for Improving Interaction in Virtual Environments.- Facial Interaction for Human Machine Interface.- A Comparison of Design Strategies for 3D Human Motions.- Authors' Index.