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hutchins, hollan, norman - direct manipulation

1. The term direct manipulation was coined by Shneiderman (1974, 1982, 1983) to refer to systems having the following properties:
1. Continuous representation of the object of interest.
2. Physical actions or labeled button presses instead of complex syntax.
3. Rapid incremental reversible operations whose impact on the object of interest is immediately visible. (Shneiderman, 1982, p. 251)
2. Direct manipulation interfaces seem remarkably powerful. Shneiderman (1982) has suggested that direct manipulation systems have the following virtues:
1. Novices can learn basic functionality quickly, usually through a demon-
2. Experts can work extremely rapidly to carry out a wide range of tasks,
3. Knowledgeable intermittent users can retain operational concepts.
4. Error messages are rarely needed.
5. Users can see immediately if their actions are furthering their goals, and stration by a more experienced user. even defining new functions and features. if not, they can simply change the direction of their activity.
6. Users have reduced anxiety because the system is comprehensible and because actions are so easily reversible. (Shneiderman, 1982, p. 251)

1. Directness (distance)
1. "We suggest that the feeling of directness is inversely proportional to the amount of cognitive effort it takes to manipulate and evaluate a system and, moreover, that cognitive effort is a direct result of the gulfs of execution and evaluation. The better the interface to a system helps bridge the gulfs, the less cognitive effort needed and the more direct the resulting feeling of interaction."
2. "The gulf of execution is bridged by making the commands and mechanisms of the system match the thoughts and goals of the user. The gulf of evaluation is bridged by making the output displays present a good conceptual model of the system that is readily perceived, interpreted, and evaluated. The goal in both cases is to minimize cognitive effort."
3. "Where semantic distance has to do with the relationship between user’s intentions and meanings of expressions, articulatoly distance has to do with the relationship between the meanings of expressions and their physical form."
2. Engagement
1. "The systems that best exemplify direct manipulation all give the qualitative feeling that one is directly engaged with control of the objects - not with the programs, not with the computer, but with the semantic objects of our goals and intentions. This is the feeling that Laurel (1986) discusses: a feeling of first-personness, of direct engagement with the objects that concern us. Are we analyzing data? Then we should be manipulating the data themselves; or if we are designing an analysis of data, we should be manipulating the analytic structures themselves."

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