[mod.ai] Seminar - Equal Opportunity Interactive Systems

RFN@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU.UUCP (09/19/86)

Computer Science Colloquium

Tuesday, October 7, 1986, 4:15PM, Terman Auditorium

"Equal Opportunity Interactive Systems and Innovative Design"

Harold Thimbleby
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
Heslington, York
United Kingdom YO1 5DD

Most interactive systems distinguish between the input and output
of information. Equal opportunity is a design heuristic that
discards these distinctions; it was inspired by polymodality
in logic programming and a well-known problem solving heuristic.
The seminar makes the case for equal opportunity, and shows how
several user engineering principles, techniques and systems can
be reappraised under equal opportunity.

By way of illustration, equal opportunity is used to guide the
design of a calculator and spreadsheet. The resulting systems
have declarative user interfaces and are arguably easier to
use despite complex operational models.

About the speaker: Harold Thimbleby did his doctoral research in
user interface design. He joined the Computer Science department
at York in 1982 and is currently on sabbatical at the Knowledge
Sciences Institute, Calgary. He is currently writing a book on
the application of formal methods as heuristics for user interface
design.