Increasingly, machine learning is entertained as a mechanism for improving the efficiency of planning systems. Research in this area has generated an impressive battery of techniques and a growing body of empirical successes. Unfortunately the formal properties of these systems are not well understood. This is highlighted by a growing corpus of…

Describes a comparative study of the "help" facilities of 16 interactive information retrieval systems. Guidelines for the design of a "help" facility are presented and then used to evaluate the quality and friendliness of each system. Suggestions for the improvement of online "help" facilities are discussed. (31…

Reviews the background, concepts, and role of hypermedia systems and analyzes essential, expected, and desirable features of hypermedia in order to provide a basis for system design and evaluation. Four hypermedium shells and systems are described, and approaches to user interface problems are discussed. (48 references) (MES)

The PRODIGY/EBL system [Minton88] was one of the first works to directly attack the problem of strategy utility. The problem of finding effective strategies was reduced to the problem of finding effective rules. However, this paper illustrates limitations of the approach. There are two basic difficulties. The first arises from the fact that the…

In machine learning there is considerable interest in techniques which improve planning ability. Initial investigations have identified a wide variety of techniques to address this issue. Progress has been hampered by the utility problem, a basic tradeoff between the benefit of learned knowledge and the cost to locate and apply relevant knowledge.…

Outlines a behavioral approach to information retrieval system design based on the derivation of a behavioral model of the information-seeking patterns of academic social scientists. The extent to which identified information-seeking characteristics are supported by existing systems is considered, and requirements for implementing these features…

Presents a conceptual framework and a coherent method for information-technology design in an organizational context within the participatory-design tradition. The MUST method, developed through projects in Danish and American organizations, is based on thorough participation with users and managers and combines the use of ethnographic techniques…