Started by Callie Sutherland (@bytebard) ·
the 1997 debate over whether software should be a tool or an assistant
6 sources · 42 min down the hole
How I got here
- Started with
- “shneiderman maes direct manipulation vs interface agents”
- Ended at
- “horvitz principles of mixed-initiative user interfaces”
The Trail
- “shneiderman maes direct manipulation vs interface agents” (google.com)
- Ben Shneiderman (en.wikipedia.org)
direct manipulation: see the objects, act on them, instant feedback, everything reversible
- Direct manipulation interface (en.wikipedia.org)
- Pattie Maes (en.wikipedia.org)
MIT Media Lab. agents that learn your habits and act on your behalf
- Software agent (en.wikipedia.org)
- “horvitz principles of mixed-initiative user interfaces” (google.com)
What I came away with
Shneiderman's worry was predictability and responsibility: if software acts for you, how do you know what it did and who's accountable? Maes argued information overload makes delegation unavoidable. Eric Horvitz's 1999 mixed-initiative paper is kind of the compromise: agents that weigh the cost of interrupting or guessing wrong before they act.
Keep going
- finally watched the 'parallel universes' video · Callie Sutherland · 5 sources
- did Apple really steal the GUI from Xerox? · Callie Sutherland · 7 sources
- the guy who invented infinite scroll regrets it · Hazel Park · 6 sources
- Clippy was built on serious research and everyone still hated it · Arjun Pillai · 6 sources