Disciplines, including Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), consist of knowledge supporting practices which solve general problems (Long & Dowell, 1989). A disci pline thus requires knowledge to be acquired which can be applied by practitioners to solve problems within the scope of the discipline. In the case of HCI, such knowledge is being acquired through research and, less formally, through the description of successful system development practice. Some have argued that knowledge is further embodied in the artefacts. HCI knowledge is applied to solve user interface design problems. Such applica tion is facilitated if the knowledge is expressed in a conception which makes explicit the design problems of practitioners. A conception has been proposed by Dowell & Long (1989). The conception provides a framework within which to reason about the implications of designs for system performance. The framework is concordant with the trend towards design, discernible in recent HCI research. It is further compatible with notions of top-down design, fundamental to software engineering practice. 2 Teaching and the HeI Research and Development Gap 2.1 An Assessment of Current HCI Education Teaching is one means by which practitioners learn to specify discipline problems. It is also a means by which they acquire knowledge to enable the problems to be solved.

Currently we are at the beginnings of widespread wireless connectivity and ubiquitous computing. The Web is merging with a variety of technologies: cell phones, laptop computers, hand held organisers, information appliances, and GPS and other sensors. The capability for access anytime and anywhere is here. The increasing frequency of cell phone calls at inappropriate times testifies that people no longer can easily control access. Devices can determine where they are located and can make a range of information available to users as well as make users available to others or their devices. We have proposed a general technique that promises to assist in mediating access. It capitalises on advantages afforded by computation(Hollan & Stometta, 1992). We first described the negotiation technique in the context of problems involved in scheduling meetings and then showed that similar issues, which at first may seem unrelated but in fact have much in common, arise in other contexts. One such activity, gaining immediate access, is currently of growing importance because of expanding connectivity via wireless technology. Cell phones and related technologies make it possible to be constantly available for synchronous interaction. At times, this can be advantageous but the associated costs and benefits result in a complex tradeoff space for designers as well as users.

For the last 20 years the dominant form of user interface has been the Graphical User Interface (GUl) with direct manipulation. As software gets more complicated and more and more inexperienced users come into contact with computers, enticed by the World Wide Web and smaller mobile devices, new interface metaphors are required. The increasing complexity of software has introduced more options to the user. This seemingly increased control actually decreases control as the number of options and features available to them overwhelms the users and 'information overload' can occur (Lachman, 1997). Conversational anthropomorphic interfaces provide a possible alternative to the direct manipulation metaphor. The aim of this paper is to investigate users reactions and assumptions when interacting with anthropomorphic agents. Here we consider how the level of anthropomorphism exhibited by the character and the level of interaction affects these assumptions. We compared characters of different levels of anthropomorphic abstraction, from a very abstract character to a realistic yet not human character. As more software is released for general use with anthropomorphic interfaces there seems to be no consensus of what the characters should look like and what look is more suited for different applications. Some software and research opts for realistic looking characters (for example, Haptek Inc., see http://www.haptek.com). others opt for cartoon characters (Microsoft, 1999) others opt for floating heads (Dohi & Ishizuka, 1997; Takama & Ishizuka, 1998; Koda, 1996; Koda & Maes, 1996a; Koda & Maes, 1996b).

The need for ensuring that usability measurement results can contribute to the ongoing development of a software product in a formative way is the main theme of this paper. It is recognized that acquiring, structuring, and analysing data about the actual progression of a product's development is a challenging task. Even more difficult, is the problem of making the results of any analysis of that data readily accessible to all the participants at regular intervals in the process. The paper presents an approach to supporting that process exemplified in SEDRES (Systems Engineering Data Representation and Exchange Standardization), a European Aerospace collaborative project on developing a data exchange capability for design tools. The main subject is the role of a software tool called NUD*IST (Non-numerical Unstructured Data Indexing Searching and Theorizing) (QSR, 1997), in providing support for structuring and analysing longitudinal data and for regular feedback to the project partners about the product under development. The paper begins with an overview of the context of use, a systems engineering project involving five major companies in the European Aerospace industry. SEDRES is a three year project which started in January 1996, co-funded by an ESPRIT grant from the European Commission. The project partners comprise Aerospatiale, Alenia, British Aerospace, Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Saab and Linkoping University (Sweden), the Australian Centre for Test & Evaluation (ACTE), and Loughborough University Telecommunications and Computer-Human Interaction (LUTCHI) Research Centre.

In 2001 AFIHM and the British HCI Group combined their annual conferences, bringing together the best features of each organisation's separate conference series, and providing a special opportunity for the French- and English-speaking HCI communities to interact. This volume contains the full papers presented at IHM-HCI 2001, the 15th annual conference of the British HCI group, a specialist group of the British Computer Society and the 14th annual conference of the Association Francophone d'interaction Homme-Machine, an independent association for any French-speaking person who is interested in Human-Computer Interaction. Human-Computer Interaction is a discipline well-suited to such a multi-linguistic and multi-cultural conference since it brings together researchers and practitioners from a variety of disciplines with very different ways of thinking and working. As a community we are already used to tackling the challenges of working across such boundaries, dealing with the problems and taking advantage of the richness of the resulting insights: interaction without frontiers. The papers presented in this volume cover all the main areas of HCI research, but also focus on considering the challenges of new applications addressing the following themes: - Enriching HCI by crossing national, linguistic and cultural boundaries; - Achieving greater co-operation between disciplines to deliver usable, useful and exciting design solutions; - Benefiting from experience gained in other application areas; - Transcending interaction constraints through the use of novel technologies; - Supporting mobile users.

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) technology plays a vital role in diverse fields such as education, industry, national policy and cultural development. This is true not only in developed countries but also in rapidly developing countries. HCI technology is not only a relatively new industry in its own right; it also plays a central role in the integration of most, if not all, areas of expertise, including newer technologies, established industries, research and development fields and cultural activities. The evolution of HCI can be viewed analytically using a basic model which consists of three elements: the human, the computer, and the interaction between the two. First, regarding the human, ease-of-use is making computers (or artefacts) accessible to more and more people, including the young, the elderly, the physically or visually handicapped. A new research view, universal usability (or universal design), is emerging. Second, the computer, which interacts with humans, has come a long way from the mainframe to the compact personal computer. Now the locus of computation is shifting from the PC to personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet computers and electronic whiteboards. Wearable computers, which may be worn like watches, glasses, clothing, and the like, are also greatly changing the traditional image of computers. Third, the interaction between humans and computers has developed from batch processing, through command lines, and on to the WIMP GUI which manipulates objects displayed in a bit map display using pointing devices such as a mouse. In recent years pen-based input interfaces, voice input interfaces, and non-verbal user interfaces (body language user interfaces which use gesture or eye gaze input), have each been actively researched. The chapters in this book deal with ubiquitous computing, interaction strategies and usability. Index.