RISKO, an Educational Geometry Drawing Software With an Innovative Interface

The traditional interfaces used in most graphical software have many shortcomings when applied to drawing programs in the context of geometry in- struction. Among them are: High complexity, availability of shortcuts to solve problems that the student is supposed to construct by geometry; and none resem- blance to real drawing instruments, preventing the student from learning how to properly handle them. A new interface for an educational geometry drawing soft- ware called RISKO was designed to mitigate these problems and is presented in this paper. Following a pure Direct Manipulation paradigm and using a concrete, real-world metaphor style, this new interface features drawing tools (drafting tri- angles, compass, pencil), which behave almost like their real counterparts. Due to its characteristics, the proposed interface is intended to be very intuitive so that it does not require any operating instructions to the user and has no error messages. Also, it is able to support all compass-and-ruler geometric constructions, while training the apprentice in the proper methods for handling real drawing instru- ments.