Author Description

The intense and constantly increasing research activity within Human-computer Interaction reflects the growing importance of the field for the introduction and use of information services. The widespread introduction and increasing use of information technology has immediate effects on people and organisations in industrialised countries, highlighting the need for even more extensive efforts in HCI. The five papers contained in this volume describe areas which together cover a broad spectrum of current HCI research. A systematic reader might most profitably read them in the sequence in which they are reproduced, but they can be read independently of each other. Thomas Green in his paper reviews user modelling from the perspective of human information processing. The author distinguishes three research paradigms within this area - the science, engineering and system design paradigms - stressing that his paper is devoted to describing user modelling from science perspective. Gerrit van der Veer in his paper focuses on individual differences in relation to learning with or about computers. The author stresses from the outset that for the near future there is no possibility of replacing human teachers with computerised tutors, but that the computer may be applied as a tool by student and teacher offering special possibilities for adjusting to individual learning behaviour. The paper reviews recent work on computers, learning and individual differences on the one hand, and interface design methodology with a special emphasis on learning, training and metacommunication aspects on the other. Montmollin devotes his paper to a review of some recent and current research in human activities in actual, complex work environments. During a period when information technology is widely applied to work places in the form of integrated work stations offering support in multiple functions and leading to a reversal of the earlier specialisation into more diverse and dis