Towards a generic model of a user profile

User modelling is an old research discipline. The main concern of this discipline is to improve the quality of human-computer interaction predictive goals, preferences and context. Thus, adaptation and personalization of a document or an application for a particular user need to have information on the latter. It often referred to as ``user profile{''}. A user profile modelling process must be done in two stages. These can be expressed by two questions: (1) ``what data?{''} and (2) ``In what form will they be organized?{''} The answer to the first question will determine all relevant information that best represents the interests and needs of the user. As for the second, it will determine the logical structure in which a profile will be modelled. This paper aims to provide answers to both questions. To do this, we begin with a presentation of different areas where the user profile can make a major contribution. In the second step, we define all the information to be included in the user profile as well as a generic model that we can adapt to different areas.