Non hierarchical mergeable dialogs

We describe a system which combines hypermedia with human computer dialogs to enhance the user interaction. The core of the system consists of an interpreter for a UIML compliant dialog description language. The interpretation of the described dialogs is used to handle user-interaction which is adapted to the available set of modalities provided by the used device. Furthermore, the system is designed to adapt an application as well on mobile and stationary devices allowing different interaction methods and metaphors for the same task. Examples for such adaptation can be performed with WIMP-based desktop systems, voice-menu based mobile phones or Personal Data Assistants (PDA) providing Point and Click metaphor. In the area of mobile end devices the adaptation of user interaction is still a challenging task due to complex applications in use. Control and navigation functions have a strong and demanding influence on the usability of applications. The here presented work shows an approach how navigation and control functions are improved by arranging the dialog steps in a hyper-structure and by assembling dialogs with a merge operation.