Information Software and the Graphical Interface. This draft was released March 1. Please email comments to bretworrydream. You can also download the PDF. Contents: What is software?

Context- sensitivity. Changing the world.

Information Software and the Graphical Interfaceby Bret Victor. Abstract. 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.

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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 address their implementation. I outline a tool which may allow designers to create data- dependent graphics with no engineering assistance, and also outline a platform which may allow an unprecedented level of implicit context- sharing between independent programs. I conclude by asserting that the principles of information software design will become critical as technology improves.

Magic Ink Information Software and the Graphical Interface by Bret Victor.

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Although this paper presents a number of concrete design and engineering ideas, the larger intent is to introduce a “unified theory” of information software design, and provide inspiration and direction for progressive designers who suspect that the world of software isn’t as flat as they’ve been told. Scope and terminology“Software,” as used here, refers to user- facing personal desktop software, whether on a native or web platform.

Software design” describes all appearance and behaviors visible to a user; it approaches software as a product. Software engineering” implements the design on a computer; it approaches software as a technology. These are contentious definitions; hopefully, this paper itself will prove far more contentious. Contents. What is software?

Context- sensitivity. Changing the world. Of software and sorcery. A computational process is indeed much like a sorcerer’s idea of a spirit. It cannot be seen or touched. It is not composed of matter at all.

However, it is very real. It can perform intellectual work. It can answer questions.

It can affect the world by disbursing money at a bank or by controlling a robot arm in a factory. The programs we use to conjure processes are like a sorcerer’s spells.—Abelson and Sussman, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (1. Merlin had it easy—raising Stonehenge was a mere engineering challenge. He slung some weighty stones, to be sure, but their placement had only to please a subterranean audience whose interest in the matter was rapidly decomposing.

The dead are notoriously unpicky. Today’s software magicians carry a burden heavier than 1.

They often approach this challenge like Geppetto’s fairy—attempting to instill the spark of life into a mechanical contraption, to create a Real Boy. Instead, their vivified creations often resemble those of Frankenstein—helpless, unhelpful, maddeningly stupid, and prone to accidental destruction. This is a software crisis, and it isn’t news. For decades, the usability pundits have devoted vim and vitriol to a crusade against frustrating interfaces.

Reasoning that the cure for unfriendly software is to make software friendlier, they have rallied under the banner of “interaction design,” spreading the gospel of friendly, usable interactivity to all who would listen. Yet, software has remained frustrating, and as the importance of software to society has grown, so too has the crisis. The crusade marches on, with believers rarely questioning the sacred premise—that software must be interactive in the first place. That software is meant to be “used.”I suggest that the root of the software crisis is an identity crisis—an unclear understanding of what the medium actually is, and what it’s for. Perhaps the spark of life is misdirected magic. What is software design?

A person experiences modern software almost exclusively through two channels: She reads and interprets pictures on a screen. She points and pushes at things represented on the screen, using a mouse as a proxy finger. Thus, software design involves the design of two types of artifact: These are not brave new realms of human endeavor.

We share the blood of cavemen who pushed spears into mammoths and drew pictures of them in the living room. By now, these two activities have evolved into well- established design disciplines: graphic design and industrial design.

Graphic design is the art of conveying a message on a two- dimensional surface. This is a broad field, because people have such a variety of messages to convey—identity, social status, emotion, persuasion, and so on. Most relevant to software is a branch that Edward Tufte calls information design—the use of pictures to express knowledge of interest to the reader.* Some products of conventional information graphic design include bus schedules, telephone books, newspapers, maps, and shopping catalogs.

A good graphic designer understands how to arrange information on the page so the reader can ask and answer questions, make comparisons, and draw conclusions. When the software designer defines the visual representation of her program, when she describes the pictures that the user will interpret, she is doing graphic design, whether she realizes this or not. Industrial design is the art of arranging and shaping a physical product so it can be manipulated by a person. This too is a broad field, because people work with such a variety of objects—cutlery to chairs, cell phones to cars.

A good industrial designer understands the capabilities and limitations of the human body in manipulating physical objects, and of the human mind in comprehending mechanical models. A camera designer, for example, shapes her product to fit the human hand. She places buttons such that they can be manipulated with index fingers while the camera rests on the thumbs, and weights the buttons so they can be easily pressed in this position, but won’t trigger on accident. Just as importantly, she designs an understandable mapping from physical features to functions—pressing a button snaps a picture, pulling a lever advances the film, opening a door reveals the film, opening another door reveals the battery.

Although software is the archetypical non- physical product, modern software interfaces have evolved overtly mechanical metaphors. Buttons are pushed, sliders are slid, windows are dragged, icons are dropped, panels extend and retract. People are encouraged to consider software a machine—when a button is pressed, invisible gears grind and whir, and some internal or external state is changed.

Manipulation of machines is the domain of industrial design. When the software designer defines the interactive aspects of her program, when she places these pseudo- mechanical affordances and describes their behavior, she is doing a virtual form of industrial design.

Whether she realizes it or not. The software designer can thus approach her art as a fusion of graphic design and industrial design. Now, let’s consider how a user approaches software, and more importantly, why. Sigma Die! Movie Watch Online.

What is software for? Software is for people. To derive what software should do, we have to start with what people do. Consider the following taxonomy of human activity: *At the present, software can’t do much for physical needs—if your avatar eats a sandwich, you remain hungry. But people are increasingly shifting their intellectual activities to the virtual world of the computer.

This suggests three general reasons why a person will turn to software: To learn. To create. To communicate.

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