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From: weh@sei.cmu.edu (Bill Hefley)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: replacing the desktop metaphor (Why any metaphor?)
Summary: Dual Mode Interfaces can work!
Message-ID: <8092@aw.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 2 Jan 89 16:29:39 GMT
References: <850@mtfmi.att.com> <673@cogsci.ucsd.EDU> <1489@umbc3.UMD.EDU> <22616@pbhya.PacBell.COM> <66401@ti-csl.CSNET> <4510@xenna.Encore.COM> <4455@Portia.Stanford.EDU>
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In article <4455@Portia.Stanford.EDU> rdsesq@Jessica.stanford.edu 
(Rob Snevely) writes:
>The issue is not ease of use, the issue is how effectively a person can
>use a program as a tool to make his/her life or job better or easier.

Agreed!

>So I propose both,
>why cant we have a word processor that has two interfaces. A "user-friendly"
>pull down menu -- dialog based interface for new users. and a command
>oriented interface for advanced users. This would allow those users who
>want or need a command oriented interface access to it while allowing
>new or intermediate users to have the point and click. Also since the
>menu interface would be around all the time, it would help to eliminate
>the problems of going from on to the other cause they are interchangable.

A couple of years ago, I led a team of folks developing a window-based user
interface (roughly 1000 x 800 pixel resolution, on a 16" high by 10" wide
monochrome display) for a process control application.  We found that a
hierarchical menu structure, closely coupled with a command line interface,
was very straight-forward for our target user population to deal with --
both novice and more experienced operators.  To reinforce the coupling of
the dual modes (as well as an training aid), the command line displayed the
equivalent of each menu selection.  We incorporated a fixed-function key
that allowed backtracking.  The single shortfall (in our minds) was that we
had to add an extra acknowledge action at the end of every command to ensure 
that the operator was ready to execute (and did not want to backtrack).  
By the way, other software packages with similar capability that I've seen 
also have had to do this (see the Search dialog in Pro-Cite's bibliography
package for the Mac, as an example.)

For a picture of our interface, see Marken's paper (pp. 1026-1030) in the
Proceedings of the 1988 Human Factors Society Annual Meeting.  The two
windows are refered to as "Menu Viewport" and "Directive" in his Figure 1.
   
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