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 directmanipulation interfaces cannot handle, such as: information overflow problems; providing help on how to use complex systems; or real-time cognitive overload problems. Intelligent user interfaces are also being proposed as a means to make systems individualised or personalised, thereby increasing the systems flexibility and appeal. Unfortunately, there are a number of problems not yet solved that prevent us from creating good intelligent user interface applications: there is a need for methods for how to develop them; there are demands on better usability principles for them; we need a better understanding of the possible ways the interface can utilise intelligence to improve the interaction; and finally, we need to design better tools that will enable an intelligent system to survive the life-cycle of a system (including updates of the database, system support, etc.). We define these problems further and start to outline their solutions.