Usability Engineering Methods for Interactive Intelligent Systems

The field of human-computer interaction (HCI) offers designers and developers of interactive systems a large repertoire of methods for ensuring that their systems will be both usable and useful. This article offers a brief introduction to these methods, focusing on the ways in which they may need to be adapted and extended to take into account the characteristic properties of systems that include some sort of AI. The discussion is organized around three types of activity: understanding users' needs, interaction design, and evaluation. The application of these methods is described with terms such as usability engineering and user-centered design. These activities constitute part of the overall software development process, and they must be carefully coordinated with the other activities involved in that process.