Human-Computer Interaction-INTERACT '99

This book provides an overview of leading-edge developments in the field of human-computer interaction. It includes contributions from many of the key areas that are influencing our use of computers. Highlights include sections on speech technology, on interaction with mobile and hand-held computers, on e-business, on web-based systems, on virtual reality and haptic interfaces. Furthermore the book includes chapters on E-Business, data mining and databases, mobile systems, speech, viewing the web, next generation office systems, novel ineteraction, accessibility, interruptions and coordination, design patterns, healthcare informatics, haptics, design techniques, remote interaction and evaluation, search, programming environments, 3D and virtual environments, social psychology and contextual design, learning, evaluation tools and communities and language. Today one of the most written and spoken impacts of computing and IT is communication and the easy accessibility for information. Geography is no longer a constraint. With these advances in first and second world nations, and slower introduction to the third world, an enlarging proportion of the world population is encountering computer based systems. This brings a changing basis of approach, as issues such as cultural, political and economic differences must be accommodated in ways that have not existed before. HCI researchers and practitioners have a responsibility to propose scientifically, socially and environmentally sustainable solutions that will help ease the burden that current new technologies impose on people and organisations. The goal must be to achieve benefit from technological advances, for it should match the skills, needs and expectations of the users of such technologies.