On Interface Requirements for Expert Systems

The user interface to an expert system shares many design objectives and methods with the interface to a computer system of any sort. Nevertheless, significant aspects of behavior and user expectation are peculiar to expert systems and their users. These considerations are discussed here with examples from an actual system. Guidelines for the behavior of expert systems and the responsibility of designers to their users are proposed. Simplicity is highly recommended. Entia non sunt multiplicanda praete necessitatem.