User Interfaces

Computers are symbol processing machines. Hence, symbol based user interfaces are most general and powerful. However, the current trend is to focus on graphical user interfaces that predominantly use index-based communication (pointing with a mouse) and icon-based communications (icons)

• • Symbol based interfaces support reproduction of computing much better than graphical user interfaces. The manuscript Reproducible Econometric Research by Roger Koenker and Achim Zeileis discusses some aspects of this.
  • The article "Semiotics and GUI Design" (a.k.a. "Excessive Realism in GUI Design: Helpful or Harmful?") by Gene Callahan does not seem to be available online anymore (two links that are currently stale are http://www.stgtech.com/staff/gcallah/tech_articles/semiotics.html and http://gwa.municipia.at/files/semiotics.html)
• The claim that graphical user interfaces are easier or more intuitively to use than symbolic interfaces is problematic.
  • It is difficult to state the objective meaning of "intuition". In a reasonable approximation, intuition can be defined as a summarised background of experience that is unconscious or semi-conscious.
  • See The Command Line - The Best Newbie Interface? by Richard Wareham.

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