Interface Culture: Week 8 Discussion Questions

The direction for the future advancement of communication media.

The method of communication is moving toward more advanced graphic communication and electronic transmission. Devices such as computers, mobile phones and pads are constantly adapting to our lifestyles and environment. The future of these devices are only limited to our capacity to change the world. The method of communicating through the web has changed the way we use books, newspapers, magazines, ads, and other resources. The internet is the most important information exchange, and has become the core of our communication environment for social and human interaction. The internet is evolving and providing more advancements in technology for mobile phones, social media sites, and video broadcasting.

One thing for sure is that the mobile phone is becoming cheaper and a more useful in our everyday lives. More applications are being created so that we can easily bounce back and forth from our computer usage to phone usage. So the future of the apps continue to be graphically designed in a creative way to help enhance the user experience. Graphic communications are becoming more and more advanced with the use of passing information via these devices. Most of the apps are designed for the visual appeal and ease of use. The mobile phone is increasingly evolving to accommodate our lifestyles. Another feature for the future apps would be the increasing use of voice-enabled applications to help make using the mobile phone more user friendly. With voice enhancements we have the ability to use the phone hands free and allow the user to have more flexibility while using the phone.

As more people depend on the mobile for interaction through social media applications will evolve to accommodate more networking sites. The activity among social networking is happening around the world and people use it for communicating to friends and family, uploading music, and placing ads. And therefore, the future of the social media is becoming more personal and portable with the use of mobile phones and personal computers. Pretty soon social media will substantially reduce communication through emails and your email address may soon become your personal social profile and may very well be used as your internet address.

Video broadcasting ever since YouTube people have communicated through video excessively online. The future for communicating with video through personal media devices will become widespread as video production tools become more affordable and the web more accommodating by making it easier to upload and share videos in seconds instead of minutes.

We can acknowledge that the use of mobile phones, social media sites, and video broadcasting has changed the way we communicate and these devices will continue to impact the future of our culture and communication media.

Interface Culture: Week 7 Discussion Questions

Chapter 1 – Bitmapping

1. In 1968 Douglas Englebart introduced “direct manipulation” of data. How was this different than how data was interacted with before?

The mouse was easier to use because you can interact directly with the computer files by pointing and selecting an object and then execute an action on that object.With the mouse you could directly interact with the computer and move anywhere on the screen. It made guiding through the computer easier. Before the mouse interaction with the computer was impossible. The computer before was just used with a keyboard so it was basically used to type documents.

2. By creating an “information space,” how did Englebart’s advancement change the way people thought about machines/computers? In what ways did it lead the way not only to interfaces as we think of them today but virtual spaces and augmented reality?

Douglas Engelbart changed the way computers worked, from specialized machinery that only a trained scientist could use, to a user-friendly tool that almost anyone can use. He also created the bitmapped screen which allowed the user to actually see pictures, files and folders on the computer.

Chapter 2 – The Desktop

3.As discussed in Chapter 2, describe some of the advancements that took place at Xerox PARC, the people involved and what they contributed.

3. The scientists of Xerox’s PARC made various improvements to the prototype desktop interface that Englebart had introduced several years earlier. Alan Kay, for example, introduced the concept of desktop windows stacking on top of one another, which allowed them to utilize the full width and height of the screen without competing for space with other open applications. This stacking of windows, compared to the stacking of boxes on a table, which gave rise to the modern metaphor of the desktop. This one “stacked boxes” metaphor soon gave way to others, such as working with “files” and discarding things in the “trash can”, that made the use of a computer more approachable to those used to working with actual boxes and trash bins. And while Xerox’s own operating system and computer never took hold, their desktop metaphors remain an integral part of using a personal computer today.

4. Memex is an information processor that enables a user to “thread through” massive repositories of data. Vannevar’s Bush Memex is a hypertext engine. The way we communicate on the internet through hyperterxt language.