Formal user models and methods for reasoning about interactive behaviour

User models allow for usability decisions to be made about abstract system designs. Programmable User Models are one such approach to user modelling; they have been developed over the past decade so that they now cover a wide range of informal, semi-formal and fully formal approaches. In this paper we briefly review the approaches investigated, thus setting out a context for Programmable User Modelling and propose a formal model of the cognitive assumptions that underly the approach. In particular we contrast approaches taken in recent formal work performed by the PUMA project where a trade-off is made between clarity of cognitive assumptions and the level of abstraction of the models. This broad review allows us to discuss notions pertinent to the field of formal HCI in general, namely what role craft skill plays in formal HCI.

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