Generations of User Interfaces

Chapter 3

Generations of User Interfaces

A designer needs to learn past User Interface techniques.

User Interface generations parallels hardware generations

Batch Systems ( 0-Dimension)

little need for interaction Examples: Payroll

systems, Email servers, file backup

Or, user needs to watch progress of batch jobs. -- the last command may fail.

Line-Oriented interfaces ( 1-D)

– Start the Compiler

cmp start

– Stop the Compiler

cmp stop

Line-Oriented interfaces ( 1-D)

Time-sharing -many users share computer resources “at the same time”

Teletypewriter (TTY) display “glass TTYs” Question and Answer Menu driven -- Telephone menu Command lines - airplane reservation system Exact format is needed E.g. “Enter City” Today’s use: walk-up-and-use systems

Forms -(2D)

Can use the whole screen with the Tab or arrow keys.

Form-filling dialogues (still in use today)

Function keys (accelerations)

Full-Screen Interfaces (2-D)

Menu Hierarchies (a menu is a list of items) Broad and deep menu hierarchies Avoid (or rarely use) hierarchy menus -- hide options,

extra set of interactions to navigate. Adaptive menus-- the favored item available at top to

speed up the system Should a menu item have only 1 item?

Graphical User Interfaces (2.5 D)

WIMP (windows, icons, menus, point device) 2 or 3 dimensional ( overlapping windows with

obscured windows Direct manipulation -user directly moves screen

object around.– Example: word processor margin indentation

Which are better: GUI or character-based interfaces? Abductive nature of GUIs- E.g., a GUI calculator, can

you use both keyboard and mouse? Disabled users of GUIs

Next-Generation Interfaces VR - (3D)

VR

Next-Generation Interfaces

Sound, time, VR next generation will be easy to carry

around and will be able to network Shared environments, office net talks The data (object) knows how to use the

available functions