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3. Are human beings aware of the capabilities of different media?
Human beings in general, and computer interface designers in
particular, are not really aware of the capabilities and limitations of
different media. Early computer output was restricted to text. This is a medium
that most people understand, since it has been used for hundreds of years.
Therefore we have an intuitive understanding of how to communicate with text, at
least at a fairly basic level. When graphics became possible on computers, the
situation did not materially change because graphics had also been used by human
beings to communicate (often in conjunction with text) for many years. When
colour became available, however, the situation deteriorated. Colour was used in
a totally indiscriminate manner in early interface design. It was not surprising
that the quality of interfaces deteriorated. Most people cannot choose their own
wallpaper or clothes with a real colour sense. It was much later that designers
realized that the spare use of colour was the key to good interface design.
It is quite interesting to reflect on why human beings (in the
Western world in particular) do not have good colour sense. Mary White [25]
makes the interesting point that "imagery" (which in her definition encompasses
paintings, sculpture, and television as well as computer graphics and video) has
been used as a primary learning tool for centuries. The invention of the
printing press changed all that, and the primary mechanism for learning became
the printed word. Ironically, towards the end of the twentieth century we have
moved back to a world where imagery is important again, and it has replaced the
word as a major political communication medium. There is, however, little
research on imagery and its effects.
We are now about to enter the era of multimedia interface design,
and I expect the experience with colour to be repeated, writ large. The quality
of home videos testifies to the level of most peoples' fitness for designing
inter faces using moving pictures and voice! Since human beings are only vaguely
aware of the differences between media, we need a methodology that helps to
answer the question, "What medium when?" to achieve a particular interface goal.
I will return to the issue of the methodology
later.
