norman@d.cs.okstate.edu (Norman Graham) (09/16/90)
This post if for the benefit of those netnews readers who don't read Tog's article in "Apple Direct". Followups to c.s.m.misc. From article <2659@esquire.dpw.com>, by baumgart@esquire.dpw.com (Steve Baumgarten): > Nisus lets you paste the clipboard into the "Find/Replace" dialog. > It's a natural and intuitive action that doesn't require that anyone > spend hours searching through thick tomes of documentation. Actually, actions are intuitable--not intuitive. For any element of a human-computer interface to be intuitive, it must be able to _intuit_ (i.e. apprehend by intuition) something about the user. For example, that element could perceive patterns in the humans behavior and then infer something. [Thanks for pointing this out Tog.] Just think, your computer could (1) observe that you read your email first thing every morning and then (2) decide to get your email for you and have it ready for you when you get to work. Now that's an _intuitive_ computer :-). Summary: If a human can intuit (i.e. apprehend by intuition) how to perform an action, then the human is intuitive and the action is intuitable. BTW, Tog suggests that we call the Mac HI an _articulate_ interface rather than an intuitive interface. To quote Tog, "...articulate fits rather well with what I see as the job of the interface: speaking clearly to users through words meaningfully arranged. In the case of the Macintosh, those words are often objects-- such as icons and control structures such as close boxes, scroll bars, and pop-up menus--but they are words nonetheless." (From "Apple Direct" July 1990) Cheers, Norm -- Norman Graham Oklahoma State University Internet: norman@a.cs.okstate.edu Computing and Information Sciences BangPath: 219 Mathematical Sciences Building {cbosgd,rutgers}!okstate!norman Stillwater, OK USA 74078-0599