Once this essential part of the interface has been verified, the help system will undergo more thorough development. A system is planned that will not only provide help by defining terms and facilitating navigation, but will also be context sensitive and, using data on common errors, be able to guide a user through any difficult decisions or confusing output encountered. The help system will have the ability to answer the question of ``how do I" complete a particular action as well as a ``show me how" to use a particular aspect of the interface or complete a part of an experiment using the software.
The final interface will then be integrated with the control software and issues of overall consistency of ``look and feel" among the system will have to be examined and resolved. User testing on this version of the interface will be conducted using the World Wide Web since the user population is scattered among many countries.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the users who have been participating in this project and Brad Blumenthal and Jason Leigh for their input on the design iterations. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Health and Environmental Research under contract number W-31-109-ENG-38.