Date page last modified 10/3/98
Who maintains the Web page : Chris Norris.
Who has editorial responsibility :
Edward Sandeman,
Rovina Colaco,
Chris Charles Norris,
Gm browsers, Web documents don't show page divisions and will re-format when the screen is narrowed .
Claris works doesn't do this everything is basically set for the printer however you can't print preview on the browser . So one application supports an output appropriate to the printer while the other supports screen readability .
Beware of distinction between text and graphics . Better to buy a map than an aerial photograph in general-despite the attractiveness of the realism . A good ccaricaative of a person is usually more recognisable than a photograph except in the hands of a good photographer . Using a diagram for teaching purposes not always good if too many ideas in the diagram .
Virtual reality is good for eg .free staff training, aircraft simmulation . However little experience is known at the moment .
Designers don't have enough experience to know what of 'these' output styles is best for the user . (see output styles on first page h/o) 3-D garhics-chemists are very interested in these . Problems in other areas
when eg are model hides another so may not be applied for non visual areas
.
Bill Gates has worked on sounds (human sounds) eg drag something to garbage can, there is a third,size depending on size of object being trashed for example a window opening, sounds like a real window opening .
A lot of evidence has shown that we are senetive to sound cues eg dogs recognising cars human too weird friend recognising sounds from the disc drive sounds of kettle
At one time engineers did'nt have the technonlogy to initiate these sounds .
Despite attempts to think of a question which would help to define inter-referential I/O in as simple terms as possible without being too long winded, we appear to have failed on that count.
We asked considering how we might think about defining either the input or the output (Inter-Referential I/O), in terms of either one or the other - any thoughts about this would be highly appreciated.
Comments ranged from not being able to understand the question to apologies for aching brains!
The point made in the lecture was that sometimes we have to think about the input by referring to the output or vice-versa. On other occasions the output is referred to in terms of the output and the same for the input. However, this may not be something that most of our students have not thought about a lot yet.
Perhaps it would help to think about how, by looking at the examples given in a more expanded form, we could ask if the designers could be helped to produce better design by thinking in terms of inter-referential I/O.
1. I__>O. The input is referred to in terms of the output. We input with a mouse but the meaning is given through a menu which appears or the scroll bar we use. We do something (input) but must define it by what we see or hear. So, for example, we type a command but define it by what happens on the screen.
2. O__>I. The output is referred to in terms of the input. For example, all error messages refer to previous user input. Any kind of feedback can be thought about this way, from the beep for a mouse click or error to the literal graphics from the input echo window to the output window.
3. I__>I. The most familiar example of this is the 'undo' command. Also redo and a UNIX 'history' list as well as the delete key in the line editor. We are unsure about the other example given in the notes - NatLang.anaphora. This may be an application with which we are unfamiliar.
4. O__>O. Some environments allow you to have two views of the same thing.
An example given is browsers with linked windows. Think Pascal warns you if
you already have a file open but allows you to open it under another name - so
this is perhaps not quite the same thing. We have not come across the example
of "beep to point out output' but perhaps you have.
Closer relationship to output when manipulating a mouse than in putting in a unix command .
Finally users are not (in general) puzzled by 'Hidden dependences' .
An e-mail was sent to the class asking for some general comments on the lecture. The response was very poor.