This paper gives an overview of the state of the art in the field of HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) and investigates the applicability of HCI research to the development of large, data intensive software systems.1 We employ our experiences in a project on administration software for the health insurance sector, for which we designed and implemented an HCI prototype. We describe problems we encountered, focussing on the design process, user involvement, and GUI design. We propose possible solutions for these problems and conclude that for e-government applications the problems we pointed out are also typical but even more critical to solve due to issues like web-based user interface constraints, for instance, as there are neither any usability guidelines for web pages established, nor is there any usability awareness
