Direct combination

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on Direct Combination, a new user interaction technique. Direct Combination may be viewed variously as: a systematic extension to Direct Manipulation; a concise navigational framework to help users find the operations they need; and as a framework to make a greater range and variety of operations available to the user, without overburdening user or interface designer. While Direct Combination may be seen as an extension of Direct Manipulation, it may also be applied to a wide range of user interaction styles, including even command line interfaces. Examples from various hypothetical systems and from an implemented system are presented. This paper argues that Direct Combination is applicable not just to problem seeking or design oriented domains (where the technique originated) but is generally applicable. A variety of new interaction styles for Direct Combination are presented. The generalisation of Direct Combination to the n-dimensional case is presented.

REFERENCES

• 1: Eric A. Bier , Maureen C. Stone , Ken Pier , William Buxton , Tony D. DeRose, Toolglass and magic lenses: the see-through interface, Proceedings of the 20th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.73-80, September 1993 [doi>10.1145/166117.166126]
• 2: Holland, S. (1998). Direct Combination: novel user interaction strategies. Technical Report 98/20. Department of Computing, Open University, Milton Keynes, England.
• 3: Holland, S. (1999). Artificial intelligence in Music Education: a Critical Review. In Miranda, E.R. (Ed.) Readings in Music and Artificial Intelligence. Contemporary Music Series, Vol. 20, Harwood Academic Publishers, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Interaction styles (e.g., commands, menus, forms, direct manipulation)

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Theory

Keywords:
creating new operations, interaction design, interaction styles, interaction technique, interaction theory, n-tuples, navigating large operator spaces, novel interaction objects