Anthony Lorelli
"Why can't a dog simulate pain? Is he too honest?" -Wittgenstein
Friday, August 23, 2002
Both suggestions would benefit from the availability of full-time graphics acceleration, as in Apple's new Quartz Extreme.
Another interface idea - why not have zoomable windows? Perhaps a slider control in the blank area of the title bar - dragging it to the right makes the window and its contents larger, to the left, smaller. It could also be tied to the scroll wheel found on most contemporary pc mice.
Wouldn't a bulletin board be a better metaphorical stand-in for the desktop metaphor we all labor with now? It could easily accomodate the idea of time-ordered document stacks used in the LifeStreams system. It would also provide a natural use of zooming - the user could zoom in on a particular area of the board to more closely examine a stack of documents, or zoom out to gain a more perspicuous representation of their workspace. As a metaphor, it also presents slightly less cognitive dissonance than a desktop - we are used to viewing vertically-oriented bulletin boards, while not many people work with vertically-oriented desks. Usability-wise, the bulletin board would be similar enough to the desktop that it should still feel familiar - which, as Raskin argues in The Humane Interface, is the true basis of a program's use being "intuitive."
"Why can't a dog simulate pain? Is he too honest?" -Wittgenstein
Friday, August 23, 2002Both suggestions would benefit from the availability of full-time graphics acceleration, as in Apple's new Quartz Extreme.
4:31:02 PM 
Another interface idea - why not have zoomable windows? Perhaps a slider control in the blank area of the title bar - dragging it to the right makes the window and its contents larger, to the left, smaller. It could also be tied to the scroll wheel found on most contemporary pc mice.
4:24:03 PM
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10:27:15 AM
Wouldn't a bulletin board be a better metaphorical stand-in for the desktop metaphor we all labor with now? It could easily accomodate the idea of time-ordered document stacks used in the LifeStreams system. It would also provide a natural use of zooming - the user could zoom in on a particular area of the board to more closely examine a stack of documents, or zoom out to gain a more perspicuous representation of their workspace. As a metaphor, it also presents slightly less cognitive dissonance than a desktop - we are used to viewing vertically-oriented bulletin boards, while not many people work with vertically-oriented desks. Usability-wise, the bulletin board would be similar enough to the desktop that it should still feel familiar - which, as Raskin argues in The Humane Interface, is the true basis of a program's use being "intuitive."
10:19:30 AM