TAXONOMY OF HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTIONS: TOWARD A MODULAR USER INTERFACE.

With increased attention to user interface issues, there have been some noted improvements in interface design, but the work has just begun. Much of the research on the user interface leads to guidelines for programmers and system designers. These guidelines must be accepted and correctly interpreted before they have a real impact on the quality of systems. It is reasonable to be pessimistic about the quality and consistency of interfaces that result from guidelines. A better approach would be to make it possible for specially trained people to design interface and allow programmers to specify user interactions in formal terms. Modularizing the user interface would promote such a division of labor. Refs.