What are the main guidelines and factors to consider when designing a
user interface for (novice) users of an intelligent home system?

Are there any existing examples of such systems, particularly catering
for novice users?

By intelligent home systems, i'm considering integrated or networked
systems which can control many common household devices (eg TV,
Stereo, cooker) in addition to controlling other functions of the home
(lighting, heating in different rooms, security).

I have already covered the work and research of Ben Schneidermann. 

Many thanks!

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Clarification of Question by irishclare-ga on 01 Apr 2004 06:20 PST

I am particularly interested in the use of avatars (e.g. Microsoft
Office paperclip, personable representations) in user interface
design, and as interface agents for systems.

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Request for Question Clarification by larre-ga on 01 Apr 2004 11:30 PST

Could you be more specific about the type of references you're after?
Research abstracts, "I built this and used an intelligent agent"
stories or anecdotes, How-to implement an intelligent agenty, or ?, or
all of the above. I'll be happy to sort through the information out
there and present an organized listing, but it'd be helpful to better
understand the sorts of information that would best suit your needs.

---larre

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Clarification of Question by irishclare-ga on 15 Apr 2004 11:20 PDT

I'm really trying to get an idea of what work or research has been
done in the field. Examples of actual implementations  or real life
systems would be particulalry useful, but i realise that this is a
current area of research, and there may be few actual systems in
existence. Any references to previous research, or what people or
research feel may be an appropriate way to implement avatars is very
much appreciated.

Many thanks to everyone for their comments and help!

Not sure if this is what you want but try www.dunfield.com

Check this site out: http://www.homeseer.com/
I have a dedicated computer for my HA system. It runs this software.
It uses the MS Agent controls (The Office paper clip is an example of
this. They use a Merlin as the default.). Has voice reconigition, has
a great web interface, it will send emails, and check emails, very
easy to program macros, but for the more advanced users, it has its
own modified VBScript language that you can use to interact with just
about anything.
For my hardware I use X10 www.x10.com for the simple hardware, but for
the more specialized stuff, I go to SmartHome www.smarthome.com .

The main guidelines and factors to consider when designing a
user interface for (novice) users of an intelligent home system are
the interface must be user friendly and what i can suggest is.. you
can control  most of the devices with the PC Parallel Port you can
design a simple circuit if you are good in electronics and you can
even take advantage of voice processing or voice commands to perform
the task or you can schedule the tasks for automation.. you can get
the #port pin configuration from the net search in
://www.google.com and in addition to it search for "Parallel Port
controled device circuit diagram" you can get a good idea of designing
your circuit and you can obtain voice processing sdk's from
microsoft.com you can use vc++ or vb for designing your interface.

Some guidelines to consider:

When creating an interface, especially for novice users you want to
take a few things into consideration.
1) Allow user control and freedom: allow "back" and "undo" buttons.
Users make mistakes so be sure to give them an exit. Also, make it
hard for a user to do something wrong.
2)Follow consistency and standards: Follow existing platform
conventions. For example, people are familiar with ATMs and Windows
operating system-based interfaces, study them and create something
that uses similar guidelines.
3)Aesthetics: Less is more! Use color sparingly and be consistent. 
4)Documentation/Help: allow easy access to a tutorial which can guide
a new user through the steps in using an intelligent home system.

http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html

You may also want to create a basic task analysis - there are three
types, Hierarchical task analysis, knowledge based task analysis, or
entity-relationship based analysis. This will help you figure out your
main goal and what steps you need to take to accomplish this goal.
This can be used later when creating an interface.
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/cs6751_97_fall/projects/spin/mccrohan/task_an.html#3

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that maybe you are
considering a touch-pad screen type of interface. Here are some links
to some existing home systems.

An example of a touch-based interface system
http://www.elanhomesystems.com/products/via/via2.asp

Elan Home Systems: audio/video and home automation system
http://www.elanhomesystems.com/

SmartHomeUSA sells home automation hardware such as lighting controls,
motion detectors, video surveillance, etc.
http://www.smarthomeusa.com/

Future Home Systems
http://www.futurehomesystems.com/

The Present and Future of Homes
http://www.ehchomes.com/

Good Luck!