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Magic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical Interface

worrydream.com · 26,457 words · saved by 10 readers

This draft was released March 15, 2006. Please email comments to bretworrydream.com. You can also download the PDF. Contents: What is software? Graphic design Context-sensitivity Interactivity Intermission Changing the world # The ubiquity of frustrating, unhelpful software interfaces has motivated decades of research into “Human-Computer Interaction.” In this paper, I suggest that the long-standing focus on “interaction” may be misguided. For a majority subset of software, called “information software,” I argue that interactivity is actually a curse for users and a crutch for designers, and users’ goals can be better satisfied through other means. # Information software design can be seen as the design of context-sensitive information graphics. I demonstrate the crucial role of information graphic design, and present three approaches to context-sensitivity, of which interactivity is the last resort. After discussing the cultural changes necessary for these design ideas to take root, I

Magic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical Interface This draft was released March 15, 2006. Please email comments to bret worrydream.com . You can also download the PDF . Contents: What is software? Of software and sorcery What is software design? What is software for? Manipulation software design is hard Most software is information software Graphic design Information software design is graphic design Demonstration: Showing the data Demonstration: Arranging the data Context-sensitivity Context-sensitive information graphics Inferring context from the environment Inferring context from

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