Magic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical Interface (by Bret Victor)


	Magic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical Interface (by Bret Victor)

Djiezes

1-6-2008 8:10 AM

415 views

tags:

article, pdf, literature, information, design, information design, visualization, interaction, interface, software

Add a Comment

Login to Comment. Not a member yet? Sign up

Obama's threat to Catholic Hospitals

It must be America's fault

Breakfast with Saint Peter: gorgeous article

Small playful creatures dancing appear as...

Britons Involved in "India's 9/11"

Art Comes to Life

More clips from Djiezes

Stand Up Comedians on Religion & God (Rick...

Obama's 'Yes We Can' in Kinetic Typography

Horizontal Shooter: a sweet, small, beauti...

Today's Top Clips

visit the Top Clips page

View the Top Clips from January 6, 2008

Embed This Clip In Your Site...

<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/5d952212-3c96-47a0-b2a3-5ebc80d70cdb/84F3B0A7-5748-4D67-AFF1-DDD87593F967/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/" href="http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/" style="font-size: 11px;">worrydream.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/"><H1>Magic Ink</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/"><H3>Information Software and the Graphical Interface</H3></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/"><H4>by Bret Victor</H4></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/"><A href="http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/MagicInk.pdf">download the PDF</A>.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/"><H2 id="abstract">Abstract</H2></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/"><P id="p54"><A href="#p54" class="anchor" id="a54"># </A>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.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/">Information software design can be seen as the design of <EM>context-sensitive information graphics</EM>.  I demonstrate the crucial role of information graphic design, and present three approaches to context-sensitivity, of which interactivity is the last resort.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/84F3B0A7-5748-4D67-AFF1-DDD87593F967/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>