peterr@utcsrgv.UUCP (Peter Rowley) (10/30/83)
Since I commented on Ben Shneiderman's IEEE Computer paper on direct
manipulation interfaces, I've used a mouse on an IBM Personal Computer
and by playing with it, I've come to realize some of the attraction of
direct manipulation interfaces, but the funny thing is that it seems to go
*beyond* reducing access time or making syntax unnecessary (which are
important, of course) to a distinct, *emotional*, pleasure which I can't
quite put my finger on but may have something to do with the immediate
feedback that is basic to the interaction technique. There does seem to
be a highly positive emotional response to highly interactive systems (e.g.
the oft-emotional love of LISP, FORTH, and APL systems and the long life of
the otherwise quite poor BASIC language) but I don't know how one would test
for it-- perhaps equalize the access time between a linguistic and dir. manip.
interface and compare user satisfaction ratings? Probably easier said than
done... but the emotional aspects of interfaces, which have been touched
on in this group before (mainly on the discussion of what "user-friendly"
means) deserve some attention. Can an interface be as cuddly as a teddy bear?
peter rowley, University of Toronto Department of C.S., Ontario Canada M5S 1A4
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