Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Can You Put an Interface on This?
Back in the day, as they say, it was not uncommon for engineering to develop an applica-
tion and then ask a designer to slap an interface on it. Of course, the “interface” should
organically emerge from the purpose, functionality, etc. of a piece of software, but there
was a time that this was not understood. The interface was seen as a “face” that you draw
on top of a program. That kind of thinking still exists in some corners.
After Purple Moon was sold to Barbie, I did some “interface consulting” to make ends
meet. One of my fi rst clients was a company that helped people to build their own web-
sites. They asked me to look at their website and help them with the interface.
I prepared for our fi rst meeting by running the website through its paces. Something
was deeply wrong. I could enter text and specify a position for it, but I couldn't see it in the
window at the center of the screen. Nothing. I clicked around everywhere, trying to fi gure
out what to do. Eventually I clicked outside the border of the window, and the site crashed.
Just crashed.
The day of the meeting, after polite personal greetings, I announced that I could take
down their site with one click. The clients expressed disbelief. I said, OK, if I can demonstrate
this to you, will you double my fee? “Of course,” they said, laughing. So I clicked in that
funny place and the site went down. The project leader cried, “but nobody would DO that!”
I replied, “Well, I did,” and proceeded to explain the problem I
was having. It turned out that their program was placing black
text on a black background. And they doubled my fee.
Fifteen years later, I told that story to a friend who is the
CEO of a major Silicon Valley corporation. He laughed politely,
then said, “You know, we acquired them.” My jaw dropped.
“They're doing quite well now,” he added.
The CyberVision computer was cassette-loaded with 2K of RAM, and it
had the capacity to synchronize taped audio with animation on the screen.
My fi rst “feature” was an interactive, animated version of “Goldilocks.”
Later, I created the fi rst lip-synching on a microcomputer for a game of
“Hangman” in which the evil executioner delivered menacing lines in a
Transylvanian accent (all this with only sixteen lip positions). I immediately
became immersed in mapping my knowledge of drama and theatre to the
task at hand because the two media were so obviously alike. There were
