User-modelling and route-finding with SMART, the Scottish motorways advisory route tutor

SMART is a tutorial system that attempts to be sensitive to each individual user´s personal knowledge and previous experience of the system and the domain, the current domain being route-finding on the motorway network of Central Scotland. The user specifies the origin and destination of the desired journey, and then commences to type a sequence of motorways indicating his proposed route. SMART monitors each step in the dialogue and, if the user makes a mistake (e.g. entering two motorways in sequence that have no mutual interchange), interrupts with an explanation of the errors at a suitable level, updating the user model in the light of the error and its context, and the user is then allowed to correct his or her mistake and continue with the dialogue. This continues until a valid route has been completed. The user model requires two distinct aspects; a record of what the system knows the user knows, and an impression of the user´s short term intentions