Equal Opportunity Interactive Systems

Abstract One view of interactive computer systems is that the user, having problems to solve, supplies the “givens” of these problems to the machine, which in response supplies as output the “unknowns”. Reassigning or discarding these labels “givens” and “unknown” is a time-honoured heuristic for problem-solving. Also, people seem to prefer interpretations without such labels for fast interactive systems, and mere speed in systems that do embody fixed distinctions between input and output often contributes little towards ease of use—it may only serve to emphasize a frustrating mechanical dumbness. We therefore apply the same heuristic to the design of interactive computer systems, noting that a number of existing successful interactive system styles can be viewed as the outcome of this approach.