Generation of Device Independent User Interfaces

It is inevitable that in the near future, mobile phones, PDA’s, remote controls, wearable computers and other new portable devices will continue to keep our hands and pockets busy. Internet access, home-device controlling, learning and teaching material, interpersonal communications, entertainment and business applications will be ubiquitously accessible and not farther than a mouse / button “click” or voice-command distance. The promise of information anytime, anywhere will become an everyday reality. Specialized and easy to use information appliances, such as intelligent handheld devices, will proliferate and practically dominate the future of human-machine interactions. In this new scenario dominated by pervasive and ubiquitous computing technologies, the efficient operation of these new hi-tech portable devices and the rapid assimilation of their usage will highly depend on the simplicity of their user interfaces (UIs). For this reason, human-centred design will be at the basis of future UI developments. Constructing intuitive interfaces will be a major requirement independently of the technological expertise level of users. Some key-design aspects for achieving complete user satisfaction will include concepts like interface personalisation, augmented reality, multimodal interaction, context adaptation and non-obtrusive computing (invisible computers).