Abstract
This thesis is based on an important development
in human-computer interface design: the move from primarily screen-based
interfaces – based on the Windows-Icons-Menus-Pointer (WIMP) and Graphical
Users Interfaces (GUI) paradigm developed for desktop computers – to computer
interfaces which take advantage of the richness of the user’s physical
environment. A common thread in the thesis is the attempt to expand the
user’s workspace, whether that expansion is kept within the limits of the
computer screen or brings the interaction to devices outside the desktop
– i.e. to “break the screen barrier”, figuratively or literally. The thesis
consists of five papers. The first paper describes flip zooming,
a visualization method that uses the workspace on a screen more effectively.
The second paper puts flip zooming and other similar methods within a general
theoretical framework, which is both descriptive and constructive. The
third paper describes WEST, A Web Browser for Small Terminals, which
was an application where flip zooming was implemented on hand-held computers.
The fourth paper describes the Hummingbird, a mobile counterpart
to desktop-based workplace awareness applications. The fifth and final
paper gives a general theory for interactive systems where physical objects
are used to access digital information that is not contained within the
actual object. Additionally, the introduction discusses how the thesis
relates to Simon’s science of the artificial, Dahlbom’s foundations
for an artificial science, and the new informatics, the scientific
discipline within which the work was performed. A spiral model of design,
Verplank’s spiral, is used to describe the research process.
Keywords:
information technology, human-computer
interaction,
flip zooming, mobility, awareness, token-based
interaction
Language: English
Number of pages: 142
Gothenburg Studies in Informatics, Report 16, May 2000, ISSN 1400-741X