Intuitive human-computer interaction - Toward a user-friendly information society

This article is an extended version of a keynote address presented at the 9th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction held in New Orleans, August 5 through 10, 2001. The article presents an overview of issues pertaining to the development of a user-friendly information society, and introduces 3 concepts for improving the intuitiveness of human-technology interaction in the future. Dynamic visualizations, multimodal interaction, and cooperative exploration are considered as 3 major approaches to improving human-technology interaction. These concepts and interaction techniques based on them are currently being investigated in a large joint research effort, the project INVITE (Intuitive Human-Technology Interaction in the Information Society). An overview of INVITE's objectives and achievements is given. Selected application areas are presented in which the concepts and techniques are applied. Finally, the issue of the relation between the physical work environment and creative activities is addressed. A spatial environment with various technical devices is described that offers a range of techniques for stimulating creativity and intuition.