Many users of today’s pen computers have an ambiguous attitude towards these devices. On the one hand, they like the ease of use, especially in the beginning. On the other hand, after some time, they often feel hampered by the systems since the user interfaces do not reflect the users’ individual skills, experiences, and preferences. Pen interfaces treat all users in the same way — like novices. Becoming an expert or ‘power’ user is quite difficult. In this paper, we report on the gedric approach (Geißler, 1995) to this problem and evaluate an application with a so-called pen-centric user interface(Geißler, to appear). We will show that such an interface efficiently supports experienced as well as novice users. By having the freedom to choose from two popular interaction styles — menus and gestures — and to mix them arbitrarily, gedrics support a wide range of user preferences and skills. This results not only in efficient individual working styles but also in a high user satisfaction.

in: Human–Computer Interaction — INTERACT’99, Angela Sasse and Chris Johnson (Editors), Published by IOS Press, 1999