Communicating with computers

As the major expenses for computing have shifted from machines to people, the need to improve user effectiveness has become more obvious. Almost all online systems today are advertised as “user oriented”;few of them, however, are fully integrated systems with consistent protocols for all subsystems, convenient command procedures, context-sensitive online aids, or any of the otherfeatures that have been shown to facilitate user interaction. Interaction techniques utilized in several experimental systems could be adapted to improve existing commercial systems. In addition, computers could be programmed to exhibit intelligent behavior in adapting to user characteristics.