Designing for Human-Agent Interaction

Interacting with a computer requires adopting some metaphor to guide our actions and expectations. Most human-computer interfaces can be classified according to two dominant metaphors: (1) agent and (2) environment. Interactions based on an agent metaphor treat the computer as an intermediary that responds to user requests. In the environment metaphor, a model of the task domain is presented for the user to interact with directly. The term agent has come to refer to the automation of aspects of human-computer interaction (HCI), such as anticipating commands or autonomously performing actions.