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From: bradb@ai.toronto.edu (Brad Brown)
Subject: Re: replacing the desktop metaphor (How about maps?)
Message-ID: <88Dec28.013454est.10771@ephemeral.ai.toronto.edu>
Keywords: metaphor, user interfaces, computing environments, maps
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
References: <850@mtfmi.att.com> <673@cogsci.ucsd.EDU> <851@mtfmi.att.com>
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 88 01:34:42 EST

In article <851@mtfmi.att.com> mel@mtfmi.att.com (M.HAAS) writes:
>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.
> > ...
>Perhaps we could start off with maps?

Keep in mind a problem with maps.  Maps are intended to convey information
about (usually spacial) relationships between objects.  This implies that
the objects are connected in some way -- there is a highway between Waterloo
and Toronto, for instance, or connections between gate387 and outputport273
on a chip.  What is the 'common ground' that connects objects in most
programs?  In a word processor, is the delete function conceptually closer
to insert or save-file?

I bring these up because I have seen many products that attempt to 'map
out' the functions of the program in little charts that show you the
hierarchy of commands in menu systems -- surely a map of some kind...
I find these quite useless, and refer to functional groupings or indexes
instead.


>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.

And maps describe relations in space.  I'm not sure how much 'space' 
there is inside the computer to be mapped :-)  Where they might be more
handy is in navigating through large amounts of data.  For instance,
some layout systems have a mode where you can display a page 'greeked'
(shrunk so small you can't read the individual letters) so that you
can move to a new location at a glance.  I would like to see something
like this in word processors, combined with hypertext for outlining.
Something like this would also be useful for navigating through large,
linked drawings in a CAD system.

					(-:  Brad Brown  :-)
					bradb@ai.toronto.edu