Saturday, December 13, 2008

33. Direct Manipulation, Shneiderman, 1983

  • Direct Manipulation:  "instead of employing a command language to instruct the computer, the data being processed is exposed and accessed in a more graphically representational way" -- instantaneous graphic/visual feedback is given for every action 
  • These concepts informed visual programming, notably video/arcade games 
  • Examples of direct manipulation systems:  Display Editors (non-linear editing systems), VisiCalc (financial forecasing program which enables you to do multiple calculations in one worksheet), Spacial Data Managements, Video Games (Pong), 
  • Using graphic representation does not always improve efficiency

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