Steps to take before intelligent user interfaces become real

Intelligent user interfaces have been proposed as a means to overcome some of the problems that direct manipulation interfaces cannot handle, such as: information overflow problems; providing help on how to use complex system s; or real-time cognitive overload problems. Intelligent user interfaces ar e also being proposed as a means to make systems individualised or personal ised, thereby increasing the system's flexibility and appeal. Unfortunately , there are a number of problems not yet solved that prevent us from creati ng good intelligent user interface applications. We do not have efficient m ethods for developing them. There are demands on better usability principle s for them. We need a better understanding of the possible ways the interfa ce can utilise intelligence to improve the interaction. Finally, we need to design better tools that will enable an intelligent system to survive the full life cycle of a system (including updates of the database, system supp ort, etc.). We define these problems further and point out some possible so lutions. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.