ADM is a system for developing user interfaces. We call it a dialog manager; it is similar to what others call a “User Interface Management System” [8]. Although ADM is still being developed, it has been used to construct several applications.

The research project in which we are involved seeks to improve the technical climate for experimentation with the human factors of interactive systems by developing tool Kits to aid the experimenter [3,5].These capabilities are in two general areas: languages and metrics to support the specification of user interfaces [1] and the evaluation of them with respect to ergonomic factors; and tools to facilitate the development of user interfaces at moderate cost and with short lead time. The latter area, which we have called “style-independent interactive systems”, or “abstract interaction handlers”, is taken up in this report.