Matching Media to Goals: An Approach Based on Expressiveness

This paper addresses the problem of output media selection in the design of human-computer interfaces. Particular emphasis is placed on the effect that the chosen medium has on the nature and effectiveness of the interactions that can take place. A novel approach is suggested in an attempt to gain an insight into why particular media allow certain goals to be achieved more effectively. This approach borrows ideas from linguistics and logic, and views media as formal representational systems. Out of this approach is developed the notion of expressiveness; the amount of abstraction a representation system affords a referent domain. The approach suggests that it is the congruence between the representation required by the goal and the expressiveness afforded by the media that largely determines the effectiveness of the interface. To give an example of this approach, three VCR user interfaces are discussed in terms of expressiveness.

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