Transcript Interface culture Past, Present and Future

Interface Culture
Past, Present and Future
Marientina Gotsis
Documenting the Past
 Digital Media History NOT an
official subject at the
University level
 Consider this: how long was
it before photography and
film were inducted in the
‘historical’ realm of study?
A brief tribute
claims to fame
 Vannevar Bush in 1945 envisioned a
computer device which would be able to
access vast amounts of linked data
(hyperlinking)
 He called that
machine: the MEMEX
Vannevar Bush with his Differential
Analyzer, c. 1935.
MIT Museum
claims to fame
 Douglas Engelbart invented a
wooden rodent in 1963
 He holds more than
20 patents so far
claims to fame
geek trivia
 How old was Marc Anderseen
when he co-founded
Netscape Communications?
22 years old
geek trivia
Who fathered Lisa and
Hypercard?
Bill Atkison
geek trivia
 Whose name is synonymous
with: URL, HTTP, XML, CSS,
DOM, SVG, W3C, RDF, XHTML
and more related acronyms…
 Tim Berners-Lee
geek trivia
 What year was Ethernet invented
by 3Com’s founder, Robert
Metcalfe?
 1973
geek trivia
 Creator of C++ Bjarne
Stroustrup, is a native of which
country whose language is
music to nobody’s ears?
 Denmark
Theories and
disputes
[*definition]
 “a computer program that
enables a person to
communicate with a computer
through the use of symbols,
visual metaphors, and pointing
devices.”.-Brittanica.com
[*definition]
 “ The idea that good user interface design
is based on metaphors is one of the most
insidious of the many myths that
permeate the software community (…)
The metaphor paradigm is based on
intuiting how things work, a problematic
method. The idiomatic paradigm is based
on learning how to accomplish things, a
natural, human process.” – Alan Cooper
popular rules
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Don't make the user look stupid.
The goal of all software users is to be more effective.
User interfaces that conform to implementation models are bad.
Users don't understand Boolean.
Transliterated mechanical models are always worse on computers.
Visually show what, textually show which.
A visual interface is based on visual patterns.
Users would rather be successful than knowledgeable.
All idioms must be learned, good idioms only need to be learned once.
Never bend your interface to fit a metaphor.
A dialog box is another room. Have a good reason to go there.
Build function controls into the window where they are used.
A gallon of oil won't make a bicycle pedal itself.
popular rules
 Purchase the right software then buy the computer that runs it.
Build the program to run on only one platform at a time.
 Don't hamper primary markets by serving secondary markets.
 The program should be designed expressly for the target
platform.
 No matter how cool your interface is, less of it would be better.
 Good user interfaces are invisible.
 Don't put might on will.
 Ask forgiveness, not permission.
 Don't use dialogs to report normalcy.
 Disks and file make users crazy.
 Disks are a hack, not a design feature.
 The program should perform optimally on hardware that doesn't
exist yet.
popular rules
Prepare for the probable case.
Have a reason for each idiom.
Sovereign users are experienced users.
One user's excise task is another user's revenue task.
Eliminating excise makes the user more effective.
Never make the user ask to ask.
Allow input wherever you output.
Don't stop the proceedings with idiocy.
Questions aren't choices.
If it's worth asking the user, it's worth the program remembering.
Button-down means select over data.
Button down means propose action: button-up means commit to action
over gizmos.
 Visually hint at pliancy.
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Indicating pliancy is the most important role of cursor hinting.
Make selection visually bold and unambiguous.
Use color_highlight and color_highlight-text to show selection.
A rich visual interaction is the key to successful direct manipulation.
Provide an escape from dragging, and inform the user.
Offer OK and Cancel buttons on all modal dialog boxes.
The drop candidate must visually indicate its dropability.
The drag cursor must visually indicate the master object.
Any scrollable drag-and-drop target must auto-scroll.
Debounce all drags.
Any program that demands precise alignment must offer a vernier.
Disable menu items when they are moot.
Parallel visual symbols on parallel command vectors.
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Don't use bang menu items.
Put primary interaction on the primary window.
Dialog boxes break flow.
Never create a system modal dialog box.
Visually differentiate modeless dialogs from modal dialogs.
Give modeless dialog boxes consistent terminating commands.
Never change terminating button captions.
Things that behave differently should look different.
The program must inform the user when it gets stupid.
All dialog boxes should have caption bars.
Use verbs in function dialog caption bars.
Use object names in property dialog caption bars.
Dialogs should be as small as possible, but no smaller.
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Never use terminating words in dialogs.
Don't put close boxes on modal dialogs.
Put terminating buttons in an untabbed area.
All idioms have practical limits.
Don't stack tabs.
Toolbars provide experienced users with fast access to frequently used
functions.
ToolTips are indispensable to toolbars.
A multitude of gizmo-laden dialog boxes doth not a good interface
make.
Consistency is not necessarily a virtue.
Every text item in a list should have an identifying graphic icon next to it.
Never scroll text horizontally.
Offer bounded gizmos for bounded input.
Accepting bounded data into unbounded gizmos is an important sources
of user frustration.
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Show validated-entry gizmos with a different border.
Show; don't tell.
Never use sustaining dialogs as error messages or confirmations.
Error message boxes stop the proceedings with idiocy.
User interface is not just skin deep.
Make errors impossible.
No crisis inside a computer is worth humiliating a human.
The customer is always right.
Do, don't ask.
Make everything reversible.
Directly offer enough information for the user to avoid mistakes.
It's not your fault, but it's your responsibility.
Audit, don't edit.
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UNDO
Users don't make mistakes.
Nobody wants to be a beginner.
Optimize for intermediates.
Any command is a working set candidate.
Imagine users as very intelligent but very busy.
Users make commensurate effort.
Obey standards unless you've got a darn good reason.
Hide the ejector seat levers.
The computer does the work and the user does the thinking.
Offer the user a gallery of good solutions.
User interface design is not guesswork.
User testing can never substitute for user interface design.
[*associations]
 “Best known for its implementation in
Apple Computer, Inc.'s Macintosh and
Microsoft Corporation's Windows
operating system, the GUI has replaced
the arcane and difficult textual interfaces
of earlier computing with a relatively
intuitive system that has made computer
operation not only easier to learn but
more pleasant and natural.” -Brittanica.com
[*cultural heritage]
 “The GUI is now the standard
computer interface, and its
components have themselves
become unmistakable cultural
artifacts.” -Brittanica.com
symbols and messages
 Semantics govern the relationship
between the user and the interface
 Inheritance plays a role in
understanding or ignoring pace
 Intuition functions differently crossculturally and even from
person-to-person
metaphors
 ‘The distance between the thing and
the something else is what makes a
metaphor successful’
 Taking the metaphor too seriously
has left us with the legacy of the 3D
trash can and the ‘is it a folder or a
directory’ dispute
the trash can and the
conceptual black hole
 Most people who throw away files in the
trash can don’t know they have to empty
the trash
 Does your garbage can bitch when you
throw away food from last week?
 Do you throw the toaster in the garbage
in order for it to spit out the english
muffins?
food for thought
 Cultural artifacts for sale
http://www.kopes.com/computer/personal
icon.htm
 The conceptual black hole
http://philosophy.uoregon.edu/metaphor/
gui4web.htm
 Interface Hall of Shame
http://www.iarchitect.com/shame.htm
innovation, imitation and
absorption
 Skins
reality check
 The average computer which
we all perceive as a
wonderful ‘tool’, ‘medium’
and ‘gateway’ is for many
still just a glorified typewriter
the big difference
 Speed is the only factor that
has change from the past
 Industrial society is 'an
anarchy of permanent
revolution‘ -Marx
slowing down
 If the QWERTY keyboard was
invented to slow down
typists, do we owe interface
designers a favor for
counter-productivity?
Capitalist
Manifesto?
consumer culture
 Interface designers and the
‘interior decorator’ syndrome
 Ping-pong with gaming
aesthetics
 Deconstructive criticism
VR culture
 Reconstruction of space still a
popular idea
 Cultural Heritage projects
inevitably push us to that
direction
 Gaming industry popularized VR
consumer culture
 This decade, the interface
concept entered every house
in one way or another
 The push of a capitalist
economy: demand/supply vs.
hacker ethics
new goals on the web
 Fighting fragmentation
 Quality of authorship
 Intelligent contact
 Multi-level adaptability
who are we?
 Digital Leonardos
– Artist, philosopher, engineer,
psychologist, historian and
more…
 Observe shift from generalist
-> specialist -> jack of all
trades, master of SOME.
artist as interface designer
Amateurs sometimes
are better than the pros
Creativity is a given
Stigma of going digital
the battle
 Result: web interface designers
struggle between
– Replicating the printed document
onto the screen
– Integrating the web interface with
the software
– Wanting to include animation,
sound and video
the battle
 Do all that and still be
original!
 Synthetic vs.
Deconstructivist approach
innovators today
 Porn industry
 Students like you and me
 Artists like you and me
 E-commerce needs
 Federal-funded
research
Digital Cassandras,
Knit-Picking and VR
the expectations
 ‘Virtual reality promised to dissolve the
interface between "user" and "world.“’
 ‘There was always some philosophical
confusion, of course, about why being
there would be any better than being
here. But we never got there anyway, and
we don't seem to miss it. Huddled at our
edge of the millennial divide, we're
happy, thanks to the World Wide Web, to
stay home and order out.’ –Pam Rosenthal
lesssons from biology
 Mistakes and hybrids make
evolution possible
digital depression
 Generational struggle may strike as a
result of an economic depression
 If the economy slows down, funds will
shift from private to federal, favoring
students/researchers
 So far, being in the private sector has
proven very profitable BUT:
 Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!
digital blues
 ‘The New Economy is not simply higher
productivity and rising incomes. Nor it is
faster computers, bigger homes and cars
and an all-prevasive Internet. The soul of
the New Economy is the ability and
willingness to take bigger risks, on
individual and societal levels, in pursuit of
growth, innovation and change – and it’s
this willingness that will be tested by the
coming downturn.” -Michael J. Mandel
Open Discussion