English 212
Assignment 2: Designing Interfaces & Metaphors
Background
A computer interface is the image/words/environment that you see when you turn on a computer or boot up a piece of software. A primary interface is the first environment that you see when you turn on the computer – often called the operating system – before you tart any specific piece of software. Today, two of the most common primary interfaces on personal computers are built around metaphors – windows and desktop. Both of these environments contain icons (familiar pictures) of file folders, documents, telephones, fax machines, and so on.
One of the interesting features about computer interfaces is that they are maps of our cultural values (see “Ch 2: The Desktop” in Interface Culture), as well as environments for computing. Like maps, interfaces seem to be particular representations, pictures designed to tell some popular cultural story (or set of stories) about computer technology (generally the most commonly accepted story), but that also necessarily ignore other stories (generally, the less popular ones).
The desktop environment on Windows, for example, is a map that tells the social story of computers as machines that were developed and continue to operate primarily within a business or corporate world – all of the images on this desktop are those we associate with business environments. As you know, however, this story is an incomplete one – computers are also used increasingly at home, self-instruction, entertainment, and for creating social communities. All primary interfaces in this country also map the story of a culture that speaks English as the “default” language, or the language of choice for individuals. This story is also incomplete because it doesn’t represent, for example, the millions of Americans who speak Spanish (approximately 22 million, roughly 10 percent of the population), French (approximately 2 million), German (approximately 1.5 million), or Chinese (approximately 1.3 million) as their first language.
Assignment
Your assignment is to design two new interfaces that map different cultural stories. Be creative and do not limit yourself to what you think you could actually technically design or limit yourself entirely to what you think computers can actually technically accomplish today.
(1) For the first new interface that you design, create the map of a space that might be more appropriate to your own life. This space might be based on representations of a kitchen countertop, a mechanic’s workbench, an apartment house, a theater stage, your own room – or any other location that seems comfortable and familiar to you.
(2) For the second new interface, map a space that is appropriate for a social community (you may or may not be a member of this social community)
In both interfaces, you are to include icons that are appropriate to the story you are telling with that particular representation or map.
You can design your new interfaces in any graphic medium – with a drawing program on a computer, with a web page and image editor, with crayons or colored pencils – whatever allows you to crate a detailed representation. You can use any language for these interfaces.
In a written typed response that accompanies each of these new interfaces, describe who the audience is for each interface and the purpose(s) for which they would be using the interface. Explain the cultural story that each interface represents and try to get at the social implications of this story: How might the interface (and hence the story it tells), change the ways in which you might look at and understand computers? Use computers? Who might this story appeal to? Who might find it useful and familiar? Who might find it strange and difficult to use? Why?
In your analysis you should refer to appropriate sections in “Chapter 2: The Desktop” (Interface Culture) that help you make your argument for why the interfaces would be effective and appropriate for the audience you have defined.
Some sample sections form Interface Culture to which you may want to refer:
“The real magic of graphic computers derives from the fact that they’re not tied to the old, analog world of objects. They can mimic much of that world, of course, but they’re also capable of adopting new identities and performing new tasks that have no real-world equivalent whatsoever” (61).
“People who get hooked on computers get hooked for this reason. They don’t become high-tech junkies because their machines remind them of their Rolodexes; they’re junkies because their machines do things they never thought possible. Interface design should reflect this newness, this range of possibility” (61).
“There’s something perverse in this total deference to user-friendly simulation, like building a word processor that faithfully reproduces a mechanical typewriter, complete with stuck keys and worn-out ribbons. It’s user-friendly, all right, but who wants that kind of friend?” (60).
“More than a decade after the Mac’s launch, with the triumph of Microsoft Windows having confirmed the basic merits of the graphic interface, it’s tempting to think of our current understanding of the interface as a purely enlightened one, free of prejudice. Alas, the desktop metaphor has as many limitations and conceptual blind spots as its command-line predecessors….The failing of the present day come from taking that metaphor [of the desktop] too literally” (57).
“There’s something deeply encouraging in this rediscovered public life, but much of it is still speculative. Much of it, in face, will depend on the interfaces dreamed up in the next few years, interfaces designed to represent communities of people rather than private workspaces” (65).
Evaluation
You will be evaluated on
- how well you embody the metaphor/story in your interface and icons
- how well the metaphor/icons fit with your chosen audience and purpose(s)
- how well the interface and icons match/reflect the metaphor/story you develop
- the details of your interface and icons
- the extent to which you explain in your analysis the appropriateness of your interface/metaphor for the audience/purpose you have selected
- the extent to which you draw on our reading to assist in your analysis
If you have any questions while you are working on this assignment, or would like to discuss your progress, please come and see me or send me an email. I check email during the weekend, too.