Abstract not found

It is very time-consuming and expensive to create the graphical, highly-interactive styles of user interfaces that are increasingly common. User Interface Management Systems (UIMSs) attempt to make the creation of user interfaces easier, but most existing UIMSs cannot create the low-level interaction techniques (pop-up, pull-down and fixed menus, on-screen "light buttons", scroll-bars, ela-borate feedback mechanisms and animations, etc.) that are frequently used. This paper describes Peridot, a system that automatically creates the code for these user inter-faces while the designer demonstrates to the system how the interface should look and work. Peridot uses rule-based inferencing so no programming by the designer is required, and Direct Manipulation techniques are used to create Direct Manipulation interfaces, which can make full use of a mouse and other input devices. This allows extremely rapid protetyping of user interfaces.

The ideas and findings in this report should not be construed as an official DoD position. It is published in the interest of scientific and technical information exchange. FOR THE COMMANDER (signature on file)

"We must learn to balance the material wonders of technology with the spiritual demands of our human nature." John Naisbitt (1982). We can make a difference in shaping the future by ensuring that computers "serve human needs (Mumford, 1934)." By making explicit the enduring values that we hold dear we can guide computer system designers and developers for the next decade, century, and thereafter. After setting our high-level goals we can pursue the components and seek the process for fulfilling them. High-level goals might include peace, excellent health care, adequate nutrition, accessible education, communication, freedom of expression, support for creative exploration, safety, and socially constructive entertainment. Computer technology can help attain these high-level goals if we clearly state measurable objectives, obtain participation of professionals, and design effective human-computer interfaces. Design considerations include adequate attention to individual differences among ...

Some recent developments in the area of multi-scale viewing have concerned the creation of such views from magnification factors as input. We present an algorithm in which magnification factors are used directly to control the creation of a multiscale view in a 3D based distortion viewing. Our algorithm relies on the basic geometry of a perspective view volume, the properties of which provide a single step conversion between magnification and transformation.

This paper examines the evolution of the focus of user interface research and development from the first production of commercial computer systems in the 1950s through the present. The term “user interface ” was not needed in the beginning, when most users were engineers and programmers; it may again become inappropriate when more applications are written for groups than for individuals. But there is a continuity to the outward movement of the computer’s interface to its external environment, from hardware to software to increasingly higher-level cognitive capabilities and finally to social processes. As the focus shifts, the approaches to design and the skills required of practitioners changes. In this paper five foci or levels of development are identified. Most development today is positioned in the third level and considerable research is directed at the fourth. Some attention is now being given to the fifth: repositioning the interface in the work group or organization itself. Work at the different levels is not entirely independent, so establishing a comprehensive framework may enable us to position existing research and development efforts and plan future work more effectively.

items from Apple's list of similarities. 3a. The ""desktop." The desktop in Macintosh provides a home base from which users can enter, exit, and manage their computer environment [Supplemental List, A.1.a, A.1.b, items in square brackets refer to the list of user interface elements in the case.] Each time a user enters the Macintosh environment he or she is immediately presented with a muted grey desktop and a collection of icons lying on that desktop (these icons may represent applications, folder directories, or documents and are identified by titles centered beneath each icon) (G1, G5, G6). To interact with the Macintosh a user opens one or more of these icons into its corresponding window. The resulting screen appearance (a representative screen is shown in Figure 1) contains many displays that are characteristic of the Macintosh: 3a(1) Unlike any earlier system, the Macintosh uses and displays icons in such a way that the typical user will not only see icons lying