This research group is directed by Prof. Nestor Rodriguez and seeks the improvement of the usability of user interfaces so users can learn to use and operate systems with relative ease, achieve high levels of productivity, commit few errors, and achieve high levels of satisfaction. The research focuses on the development of interaction paradigms for improving the usability of user interfaces. The methodology for this kind of research involves a task analysis to understand the nature of the target application and identifies users’ needs. A prototype of the application is usually developed taking in consideration the needs of the users as identified through task analysis. During this past year this has concentrated on studying different approaches for developing user interfaces pertaining to end users dealing with hydro-ecological applications supported by a CIP environment. The group has also being working in the development of a general-purpose web-based image-handling module (IHM) for accessing and manipulating images, in the form of a viewer, to study modalities for efficient interaction of users with large image data sets. There are two MS graduate students fully supported by the WALSAIP project under this group.