Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
DESIGN HEURISTIC
Think of the computer not as a tool, but as a medium.
The notion of the computer as a tool obviously leads to the construction
and inclusion of concepts in all application domains that are inconsistent
with the context of the specifi c representation: fi le operations, buffers, data
structures, lists, and programming-like syntax, for example. For purposes
of comparison, think about how people use “real” tools. When one ham-
mers a nail into a board, one does not think about operating the hammer;
one thinks about pounding the nail. But in the computer medium, the
“tool problem” is compounded by existential recursion; the medium can
be used to
represent
tools. Some, like virtual paintbrushes, are more or less
modeled on real-life objects. Others, like the omnipresent cursor in most
of its instantiations, have no clear referents in the real world. It is espe-
cially in these cases that interface designers are tempted to represent the
tool in terms of computer-based operations that are cognitively and opera-
tionally unnecessary for their use. Why? Because the computer-oriented
representation is seen as an “honest” explanation of what the tool
is
and
how it works, and because that's how the
designer
understands it. People
quickly become entangled in a mass of internal mythology that they must
construct in a largely
ad hoc
fashion, in contrast to Rubinstein and Hersh's
notion of a clear and consistent “external myth” (1984). As an interactor,
one may quickly fall through the trap door into the inner workings of the
computer or the software.
DESIGN HEURISTIC
Interaction should be couched in the context of the
representation—its objects, environment, potential, and
tools.
The notion of employing metaphors as a basis for interface design has par-
tially replaced the notion of computer as tool with the idea of computer as
representer of a virtual world or system
, in which a person may interact more
or less directly with the representation. Action occurs in the mimetic con-
text and only secondarily in the context of computer operation. Metaphors
