The word-processor capabilities of THE are not the whole picture. You have to combine it with Zoomworld, the graphical paradigm intended to replace the desktop metaphor.
This interface is described in The Humane Interface book. It is basically a spatial, non-windowing interface: an infinite plane expanding in all directions and zoomable to infinite detail. Extra information is provided by "flying" closer to the inspected object. It has been tested in real world applications with remarkable success (people being able to use efficiently a radically new interface for a complex application -a multiple hospital timetable- in 10 minutes). Raskin's "efficient ideas" have been thoroughly tested after each iteration of design, so they're not as problematic as they seem.
As far as I can recall, browsing in this Zoomworld can be done with a mouse; leap functions would be used as a search facility. Also you have to remember that commands are entered in-point, just like with a CLI; so there's no need to "leap to" a menu entry in order to activate it. It's true that good typing skills for this are needed, though. But the overall point'n'click is still available, only without the annoying windows and without the inconsistencies between applications.
The only point that remains untested and which I doubt is the viability of this system as a multi-application environment; but given that the whole purpose of THE is to deprecate the "separate applications" view of the operating system, integrating functionalities from different providers should be a non traumatic process. And Mac OS X is testing this with its NeXT style application services, so the feasibility of the whole paradigm is being tested in an actual interface.
Do you realize that you are opposing almost all ethical systems?
I would say that we try to fight nature's "law of force" because we understand that in a cooperative environment, your own chances to survive are much better.
But the difference is that in The Humane Environment it IS fundamental, since it replaces the mouse in cursor movement. T.H.E. is an interface designed around this feature to take full advantage of it, thats why you havent seen it been being successful in other systems. (Except in a limited way inside Firefox, where the similar search-in-links allows for easily browsing the web without a mouse, and people see this as a revolutionary and very marketable feature).
My impression is that he would prefer an entirely different machine that may perhaps be radically different than what we have now. If this is so, Raskin should go out and create his OS of choice.
He is doing it. It's called The Humane Interface, and you can download it from sourceforge and give it a try.
Given that some strengths of this interface are the same which make the CLI a good tool for advanced users, you should at ponder about it for a while.
If you believe that the current GUIs is "quite efficient" for intermediate users then you have not seen many of then doing something even a little bit complex. This quote from the interview perfectly resumes the real situation:
"There has been immense progress, primarily in the richness of applications. But all this power is lost on many people, and impedes the utility of it for the rest, because of the unnecessary complexity of using computers."
You have to bear in mind that the human brain is a processor with limited power, it's main bottleneck being it's small short-term memory. Also the Input/Output protocols are constrained by perceptive capabilities. A guy who promotes design ing software optimized for this restrictions is worthy of some respect, moreover given that he is able to provide some actual solutions.
While it's important in the long term to teach some basic usability concepts to OSS developers, the first required task is to raise awareness of its need and publizice the basic principles that we already know. We need good hooks to get them interested into the HCI field.
I have some half-baked ideas targetted to fight the "show me your code" attitude. One of these that I just had is the "Wetware Optimization" metaphor:
"Human brain is a processor with limited power, it's main bottleneck being it's small short-term memory. Also the Input/Output protocols are constrained by perceptive capabilities, so GUIs should be carefully optimized to these requirements, not just for those of the mechanic peripherals (mouse, keyboard, screen)".
Do you think this kind of language would be effective for my stated goal? Should I write an essay on this subject?
Feel free to use the mantra and the "wetware processor" ideas as you like. I'm trying to create a meme here, so every person spreading it would help.
I would fight this battle with the "Pixels Are Code"(tm) mantra. The idea after this slogan is to remark that HCI experts create a precise, exact output which is a high level description of the final application; something akin to the intermediate bytecode produced by a compiler, just with a very descriptive language. I.e. UI experts produce one step of the design process.
You should persuade OSS developers that the work of a usability analist requires technical skills and produces careful designed specifications, then they will recognize your hacking ability as a part of the programming process.
The problem I've seen with OSS developers is that they are not familiar with the knowledge and glossary of the HCI field, so they tend to consider advice from a UI expert as mere opinions. In order to break this trend we'll need to better marketing the usability techniques, in a language that they could understand and relate to the "code-sharing" experience of Open Source. Thus the usefulness of the "P.A.C." mantra.
Because the DRM aren't there to protect your system, but to protect the owners content. They restrict what your machine can do and in the way they broken it's expected behavior, and you don't benefit in any way from it.
Yes, but there are people interested in pushing the limits and getting of this trend. Just they are not mainstream, you have to look for them. Try out Galatea and tell me if it isn't an interesting storytelling experiment. Wonder if it couldn't be exported to other non-textual interfaces.
Have you tried Galatea? If not, you will be surprised by this character. If you want interesting people and stories, probably you should try Interactive Fiction text games rather than viedogames.
The RIAA is what capitalism is. Adam Smith explained what capitalism should be, but at the end of the day the world doesn't work as your average ideallistic guru says. This is also true for communism, which in the real world didn't work as expected in theory.
A "free market" is an intellectual construct that nobody have found how to turn into reality. So if you would describe your country as capitalistic, think of it as it really works, not as if it were a Wonderland.
Do you trust the information results provided by Google?
Agreed, the problem of trust is not directly solved by the semantic web, the same way that TCP/UP doesn't solve trust - Semantic web. is a communication tool. Trust managing should be programmed on top of this tool, as an application.
Slashdot Mirror
The word-processor capabilities of THE are not the whole picture. You have to combine it with Zoomworld, the graphical paradigm intended to replace the desktop metaphor.
This interface is described in The Humane Interface book. It is basically a spatial, non-windowing interface: an infinite plane expanding in all directions and zoomable to infinite detail. Extra information is provided by "flying" closer to the inspected object. It has been tested in real world applications with remarkable success (people being able to use efficiently a radically new interface for a complex application -a multiple hospital timetable- in 10 minutes). Raskin's "efficient ideas" have been thoroughly tested after each iteration of design, so they're not as problematic as they seem.
As far as I can recall, browsing in this Zoomworld can be done with a mouse; leap functions would be used as a search facility. Also you have to remember that commands are entered in-point, just like with a CLI; so there's no need to "leap to" a menu entry in order to activate it. It's true that good typing skills for this are needed, though. But the overall point'n'click is still available, only without the annoying windows and without the inconsistencies between applications.
The only point that remains untested and which I doubt is the viability of this system as a multi-application environment; but given that the whole purpose of THE is to deprecate the "separate applications" view of the operating system, integrating functionalities from different providers should be a non traumatic process. And Mac OS X is testing this with its NeXT style application services, so the feasibility of the whole paradigm is being tested in an actual interface.
Do you realize that you are opposing almost all ethical systems?
I would say that we try to fight nature's "law of force" because we understand that in a cooperative environment, your own chances to survive are much better.
But the difference is that in The Humane Environment it IS fundamental, since it replaces the mouse in cursor movement. T.H.E. is an interface designed around this feature to take full advantage of it, thats why you havent seen it been being successful in other systems. (Except in a limited way inside Firefox, where the similar search-in-links allows for easily browsing the web without a mouse, and people see this as a revolutionary and very marketable feature).
I do. Thats what I post. If you dont understand my point, its your problem.
Ask yourself this, if those leap keys were such a breakthrough in the UI, why hasn't something analogous caught on in the last two decades?
You mean, something like incremental search in Firefox?
So, 90% of the movie will be pitch black?
Now put here your jokes about the duct tape mod.
But it seems to me that research towards more complicated UIs (and how to manage the complexity)
And that's just what Jef Raskin's doing in his daily job. Your point is?
You're saying that his opinions on user interface theory are not valid because of his practice as a software developer is not top-notch?
That's bullshit. Try reading about Raskin's opinions on user interfaces before critizising him. A guy who invented the Mac interface deserves at least that.
My impression is that he would prefer an entirely different machine that may perhaps be radically different than what we have now. If this is so, Raskin should go out and create his OS of choice.
He is doing it. It's called The Humane Interface, and you can download it from sourceforge and give it a try.
Given that some strengths of this interface are the same which make the CLI a good tool for advanced users, you should at ponder about it for a while.
If you believe that the current GUIs is "quite efficient" for intermediate users then you have not seen many of then doing something even a little bit complex. This quote from the interview perfectly resumes the real situation:
" There has been immense progress, primarily in the richness of applications. But all this power is lost on many people, and impedes the utility of it for the rest, because of the unnecessary complexity of using computers. "
You have to bear in mind that the human brain is a processor with limited power, it's main bottleneck being it's small short-term memory. Also the Input/Output protocols are constrained by perceptive capabilities. A guy who promotes design ing software optimized for this restrictions is worthy of some respect, moreover given that he is able to provide some actual solutions.
Hey, and thanks for the Open Usability link. I didn't know that project, seems promising.
While it's important in the long term to teach some basic usability concepts to OSS developers, the first required task is to raise awareness of its need and publizice the basic principles that we already know. We need good hooks to get them interested into the HCI field.
I have some half-baked ideas targetted to fight the "show me your code" attitude. One of these that I just had is the "Wetware Optimization" metaphor:
"Human brain is a processor with limited power, it's main bottleneck being it's small short-term memory. Also the Input/Output protocols are constrained by perceptive capabilities, so GUIs should be carefully optimized to these requirements, not just for those of the mechanic peripherals (mouse, keyboard, screen)".
Do you think this kind of language would be effective for my stated goal? Should I write an essay on this subject?
Feel free to use the mantra and the "wetware processor" ideas as you like. I'm trying to create a meme here, so every person spreading it would help.
I would fight this battle with the "Pixels Are Code"(tm) mantra. The idea after this slogan is to remark that HCI experts create a precise, exact output which is a high level description of the final application; something akin to the intermediate bytecode produced by a compiler, just with a very descriptive language. I.e. UI experts produce one step of the design process.
You should persuade OSS developers that the work of a usability analist requires technical skills and produces careful designed specifications, then they will recognize your hacking ability as a part of the programming process.
The problem I've seen with OSS developers is that they are not familiar with the knowledge and glossary of the HCI field, so they tend to consider advice from a UI expert as mere opinions. In order to break this trend we'll need to better marketing the usability techniques, in a language that they could understand and relate to the "code-sharing" experience of Open Source. Thus the usefulness of the "P.A.C." mantra.
Elizabeth Neal has recently written on this subject, and the title says it all:
Why You Don't Need a Usability Lab
Promoting the mindset for usability and user-centered design inside the KDE project is a very good thing, though.
Another important difference is that Spotlight will be able to do incremental search, which is a terribly much better interface for searches.
I'm not sure what FOSS efforts there have been to head this direction - though I'm sure there are at least a few.
Several, but just they're not aimed to the MS Windows operating system.
"The Humane Environment", by Jef Raskin. It's a new metaphor for user interface, together with "Zoom World".
Do you know "The Humane Environment" by Jef Raskin? Is a whole new metaphor for graphic user interface.
Because the DRM aren't there to protect your system, but to protect the owners content. They restrict what your machine can do and in the way they broken it's expected behavior, and you don't benefit in any way from it.
some scaled down Monet paintings
Yes, but there are people interested in pushing the limits and getting of this trend. Just they are not mainstream, you have to look for them. Try out Galatea and tell me if it isn't an interesting storytelling experiment. Wonder if it couldn't be exported to other non-textual interfaces.
Have you tried Galatea? If not, you will be surprised by this character.
If you want interesting people and stories, probably you should try Interactive Fiction text games rather than viedogames.
What happend to the part of the libertarian credo where free markets where supposed to increase the wants of its participants, not their profits?.
The RIAA is what capitalism is. Adam Smith explained what capitalism should be, but at the end of the day the world doesn't work as your average ideallistic guru says. This is also true for communism, which in the real world didn't work as expected in theory.
A "free market" is an intellectual construct that nobody have found how to turn into reality. So if you would describe your country as capitalistic, think of it as it really works, not as if it were a Wonderland.
del.icio.us is a "social bookmarking" site; people save their surfing findings, and the links are automatically cathegorized.
.us is a valid URL domain. Search for it in Google.
I don't know why it doesn't open in your browser;
Do you trust the information results provided by Google?
Agreed, the problem of trust is not directly solved by the semantic web, the same way that TCP/UP doesn't solve trust - Semantic web. is a communication tool. Trust managing should be programmed on top of this tool, as an application.