Magic Ink INFORMATION SOFTWARE AND THE GRAPHICAL INTERFACE by 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. 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. #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? Of software and sorcery. Is “interaction design” the cure for frustrating software, or the disease itself? What is software design? Software is not a new and mysterious medium, but a fusion of two old ones. What is software for? People turn to software to learn, to create, and to communicate. Manipulation software design is hard. Creating software for creating is tricky business. Most software is information software. People spend more time learning than creating. Graphic design Information software design is graphic design. People learn by looking. Looks are all that matters. Demonstration: Showing the data. Redesigning Amazon as an information graphic. Demonstration: Arranging the data. Redesigning Yahoo! Movies as an information graphic. Context-sensitivity Context-sensitive information graphics. Software trumps print by showing only what’s relevant. Inferring context from the environment. The outside world can suggest what’s relevant. Inferring context from history. Memories of the past can suggest what’s relevant. Interactivity Interactivity considered harmful. The user can suggest what’s relevant, but only as a last resort. Reducing interaction. Approaches to easing the pain. How did we get here? The popular focus on interactivity is a vestige of another era. Intermission Case study: Train schedules. Designing a trip planner as an information graphic. Demonstration: Trip planning redux. Redesigning Southwest Airlines as an information graphic. Changing the world Designing the information software revolution. Five steps from artifice to art form. Designing a design tool. Dynamic graphics without the programming. Engineering inference from history. How software can learn from the past. Engineering inference from the environment. A platform for implicit communication between software. Information and the world of tomorrow. Why all this matters. 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 (1984) #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 13-foot monoliths—communication with the living. 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.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 05:33:08 +0000
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