The Anti-Mac interface

Reviewer: Dario A. Giuse

The authors use the design principles that underlie most window-based graphical user interface systems (exemplified by the original Macintosh window system) to analyze what would happen if those design principles were violated. The authors make the case that the set of design principles works well, as a whole, for machines of limited or intermediate capabilities and for beginning users. The same principles, however, lead to over-restrictive interfaces on highly connected, powerful computers. Moreover, interfaces that follow those principles do not extend gracefully to systems with millions of objects (such as the World Wide Web), and they limit more computer-literate users. Relaxing the principles used by the current crop of graphical interfaces would lead to much more proactive computer systems, with special emphasis on the use of language and its ability to represent and refer to abstract objects or sets. The analysis of the design principles and their undesirable effects on current interfaces is well reasoned and clearly explained. The discussion of the possible form of future computer interfaces is less detailed. The authors limit themselves to pointing in the general direction of already proposed conceptual prototypes such as the Knowledge Navigator and Starfire. Despite the limited attempt to describe alternatives, this enjoyable paper should be useful to interface designers and users alike.