Post-Wimp User Interfaces: the Human Connection

  • van Dam A
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Abstract

In this age of (near-)adequate computing power, the power and usability of the user interface is as important to an application's success as its functionality. Most of the code in modern desktop productivity applications resides in the user interface. But despite its centrality, the user interface field is currently in a rut: the WIMP (windows, icons, menus and pointers) GUI based on keyboard and mouse has evolved little since it was pioneered by Xerox PARC in the early 1970s. Computer and display form factors will change dramatically in the near future and new kinds of interaction devices will soon become routinely available. There will be many different kinds of information appliances, including powerful PDAs that are successors to the Newton (R.I.P.) and Palm Pilot, and wearable computers. On the other end of the size spectrum, there will be large-screen displays produced by large flat panels and new projection technology, including office-based immersive virtual reality environments, And on the input side, we will finally have acceptable speech recognition, force-feedback devices, and non-invasive, vision-based object and people "reconstruction". Perceptual user-interfaces (PUIs) will use sensors of various types that will sense our state, mood etc., to make computers more aware of and more adaptable to our individual needs. Agent technology, based on improvements in knowledge acquisition and management, will finally make some degree of implicitly specified asynchronous interaction possible. In short, we will be liberated from the tyranny of the desktop computer, with its simple interaction devices and metaphors, and can look forward to user interfaces such as multimodal and perceptual UIs that are dramatically more powerful and better matched to human sensory capabilities than those dependent solely on keyboard and mouse. The vision of the user experience 5-10 years hence is that of the human interacting with a set of computers in a variety of form factors and environments, working on her behalf as perceptive, responsive partners rather than as tireless but unthinking lackeys executing simple, explicitly specified commands by rote. Brown University has specialized in post-WIMP UIs that extend the vocabulary of direct manipulation. For example, we pioneered 3D interaction widgets, controlled by mice or interaction devices with three or more degrees of freedom, that are a natural evolution from their two-dimensional WIMP counterparts. They can decrease the cognitive distance between widget and task for many tasks that are intrinsically 3D, such as scientific visualization and MCAD. More radical post-WIMP UIs are needed for immersive virtual reality (VR) where keyboard and mouse are inappropriate because they were designed for the desktop environment. Immersive VR provides good driving applications for developing post-WIMP 3D UIs based on multimodal interaction that leverages more of our senses by combining the use of gesture, sound (e.g. speech) and haptics for both input and feedback to the user. For example, we implemented a prototype gesture-based sketching interface for conceptual and mechanical design, a multimodal scientific visualization interface combining gesture and speech, and some simple GUIs that use proof-of-concept 3D modeling and window-manager GUIs based on haptic input and feedback. These are all still first-generation post-WIMP, and we look forward to even more radical departures from today's interfaces.

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van Dam, A. (2001). Post-Wimp User Interfaces: the Human Connection. In Frontiers of Human-Centered Computing, Online Communities and Virtual Environments (pp. 163–178). Springer London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0259-5_11

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