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From: mel@mtfmi.att.com (M.HAAS)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc,comp.sys.next,comp.sys.mac,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: replacing the desktop metaphor (How about maps?)
Keywords: metaphor, user interfaces, computing environments, maps
Message-ID: <851@mtfmi.att.com>
Date: 27 Dec 88 19:46:14 GMT
References: <850@mtfmi.att.com>, <673@cogsci.ucsd.EDU>
Reply-To: mel@mtfmi.att.com (M.HAAS)
Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ
Lines: 51

Don Norman writes (in part) -
 > I do believe that we need overall consistency and a coherent mental
 > model (system image) so we can better remember and derive the
 > appropriate operations and better trouble shoot when things go wrong.
 > ...       The main point is that we still understand this
 > surprisingly poorly.  Where consistency and metaphor and consistent
 > system images-mental models help and where they hinder is not yet
 > properly understood.

Perhaps we could start off with maps.  The computer isn't 2-D (but maybe
we are :), and we have to start with something we understand.  (Maybe
that was why the desktop metaphor works at all.)

Most of my kid's Nintendo games come with a map, and the old Adventure
game sure was easier with the map.  Driving to a new destination is
easier with a map, and those huge cases you see pilots carry are
chock full of maps (geographic, navigation aids, airport layouts, and
systems on the plane itself).  The circuitry of the computer has
maps, but I haven't yet seen any for complex "real" user interface.

To be useful, the maps must use a standardized notation system.  (Do 
middle eastern maps have Mecca at the top?)  And, hopefully have names
and symbols that match the visual picture the user sees.  Names on
road signs match those on the maps (except in D.C. and Boston).

Robert Moses said that there is more traffic control in cans of paint
than all the electronic gadgets put together.  Where are the computer
equivalents of the double white line?  the "Exit 109, Red Bank" sign?
the "Ramp Speed 25 mph" sign?  the "No U Turn" sign?  the "MacDonalds
8 miles at Exit 13" sign?

Maps are:
1. inherently 2-D (the only way to make them cheaply),
2. much less than a full representation of reality,
3. much more of a representation than the user sees at any instant,
4. a language of communications.

Would it be worthwhile to investigate mapping techniques, notations,
names, and symbols for the user interface to computer systems?  I
think auto safety and usefulness was poor before the user aids came
into being.  Air traffic control is critically dependent on standards
in user presentations and maps.  The circuit development process is
linked by common notations in map-like diagrams.  And, I think there
are hundreds of other similar examples.

The Enterprise travels in a multi-dimensional universe ("Warp 9 if
you please, Mr. Sulu") and I assume they have maps somewhere to guide
them.  Shouldn't we have maps for our multi-dimensional computer
navigation, too?

   Mel Haas  ,  attmail!mel