Combining HCI techniques for better user interfacing

Investigating user interface design and development problems is the core of current HCI research. Concepts such as intelligent user interfaces, adaptive user interfaces, user interface management systems (UIMSs), and multimedia user interfaces have gained the greatest momentum. Each of these concepts studies a major characteristics of the user interface systems´ design. Intelligent user interfaces apply available knowledge about the task to the control of the interaction, in order to increase efficiency and usability. Adaptive user interfaces utilise the knowledge about the user to configure the interface for different users, i.e. each user may have different skills, level of experience, or cognitive and physical abilities. The UIMS corner-stone is to separate the user interface from the application, in order to facilitate the design and development. Applying multimedia concepts to user interface systems can provide enriched, efficient, and flexible interaction. Particular attention has been paid to users with special needs. The “Design for all” concept is a principle recently acknowledged in the HCI field. The conclusions underline the improvement that such a design approach can offer to users with special needs, from educational and vocational points of view