Important issues concerning interactive user interfaces in grid based computational steering systems

This paper discusses a number of important issues concerning interactive user interfaces in grid based computational steering systems. The goal is to improve the scientist’s efficiency and make the system more accessible to users who are not necessarily computer experts. A key step is the identification of critical factors that affect the performance of the user. Whilst it is easy to trivialize the design of these systems, in practice the design of an efficient solution can be very challenging. The more advanced computational steering systems may be regarded as a supervisory control system with high level of interaction and consequently can only be effective if the user is considered during their design. A deeper analysis will show there are many trade-offs that need to be considered in order to achieve optimization from a user’s perspective.