Xref: utzoo alt.hypertext:810 comp.cog-eng:1919 comp.graphics:17046 comp.multimedia:276 comp.software-eng:5245 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ukma!s.ms.uky.edu!jpenny From: jpenny@ms.uky.edu (Jim Penny) Newsgroups: alt.hypertext,comp.cog-eng,comp.graphics,comp.multimedia,comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Images vs. Text Message-ID: Date: 4 Apr 91 18:28:55 GMT References: <10292@pitt.UUCP> <1991Apr2.180348.19733@smsc.sony.com> <1991Apr02.235121.17834@convex.com> Distribution: na Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences Lines: 32 cash@convex.com (Peter Cash) writes: >In article <10292@pitt.UUCP>, grefen@sun14.cs.pitt.edu (Gregory Grefenstette) writes: >|> I'm doing work on hypertext visual interfaces and I >|> would like to be able to prove what seems evident to me, >|> that is, that people can scan information presented >|> in a visual image-based form FASTER than in a plain >|> textual form. >>For example, it's much slower for me to decipher a pallette of icons >>that correspond to a set of operations than it is for me to decipher a >>text menu in the same space. I would like to see you assign an icon for the operation of "compute the Delauney triangulation" or "apply duality map D" or "compute the Symmetric difference" or ... The assertion is just plain silly, as it amounts to the assertion that rebuses or pictograms are easier to understand than alphabetic languages. There is at least two thousand years of history which points the other way. However, there are situations in which people have notorious difficulty understanding information presented textually; qualitative information is foremost amoung these. Here a graphic display can be very helpful. Realize that people may be able to find pictures which they are very accustomed to faster than they are able to read the corresponding words in a box, but the words in a box approach is immensely more flexible and is more robust when novel concepts must be communicated. Jim Penny