Soft machines: A philosophy of user-computer interface design
Open accessAbstract
Machines and computer systems differ in many characteristics that have important consequences for the user. Machines are special-purpose, have forms suggestive of their functions, are operated with controls in obvious one-to-one correspondence with their actions, and the consequences of the actions on visible objects are immediately and readily apparent. By contrast, computer systems are general-purpose, have inscrutable form, are operated symbolically via a keyboard with no obvious correspondence between keys and actions, and typically operate on invisible objects with consequences that are not immediately or readily apparent. The characteristics possessed by machines, but typically absent in computer systems, aid learning, use and transfer among machines. But “hard,” physical machines have limitations: they are inflexible, and their complexity can overwhelm us. We have built in our laboratory “soft machine” interfaces for computer systems to capitalize on the good characteristics of machines and overcome their limitations. A soft machine is implemented using the synergistic combination of real-time computer graphics to display “soft controls,” and a touch screen to make soft controls operable like conventional hard controls.
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Progressive disclosure has a long history in UI research, dating back to the Xerox Star and early word processing systems.
“Progressive disclosure has a long history in UI research, dating back to the Xerox Star and early word processing systems [15,62,76].”
From Progressive Disclosure: When, Why, and How Do Users Want Algorithmic Transparency Information? (2020) · cites this paper as [62]
In “Operability with Flexibility” (page not provided), the paper explicitly identifies progressive disclosure with the Xerox Star interface, supporting that part of the historical claim. Its mention of dedicated word processors elsewhere concerns special function keys, not progressive disclosure, so it does not support the early-word-processing-systems part. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredProgressive disclosure has a long history in UI research, dating back to the Xerox Star and early word processing systems.
“Progressive disclosure has a long history in UI research, dating back to the Xerox Star and early word processing systems [14,61,74].”
From Progressive disclosure (2019) · cites this paper as [61]
The “Operability with Flexibility” section explicitly identifies progressive disclosure as characteristic of the Xerox Star interface. The paper mentions dedicated word processors elsewhere, but does not link early word-processing systems to progressive disclosure (page numbers unavailable). (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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Cites
CARD, S. K., ENGLISH, W. K., & BURR, B. J. (1978) · Ergonomics · doi:10.1080/00140137808931762 · Cited by 887 · see citing works
Ely, J. H., Thomson, R. M., & Orlansky, J. (1956) · doi:10.21236/ad0118023 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
The Effect of Graphic Input Devices on Performance in a Cursor Positioning Task
Albert, A. E. (1982) · Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting · doi:10.1177/154193128202600114 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Computer Displays Optically Superimposed on Input Devices
Knowlton, K. (1977) · Bell System Technical Journal · doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1977.tb00514.x · Cited by 32 · see citing works
The effect of graphic input devices on performance in a cursor positioning task
Albert, A. E. (1982) · PsycEXTRA Dataset · doi:10.1037/e573922012-013 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- B. J. Mirrer, "An Interactive, Graphical, Touch- Oriented Speech Editor," MIT Master's Thesis, 1982.
- C. Schmandt, "The Intelligent Ear--A Graphical Interface to Digital Audio," Proceedings of the 1981 International Conference on Cybernetics and Society, 1981, pp. 393-397.
- D. C. Smith, C. Irby, R. Kimball and B. Verplank, "Designing the Star User Interface," Byte, April 1982, pp. 242-282.
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Springer, A., & Whittaker, S. (2019) · Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces · doi:10.1145/3301275.3302322 · Cited by 115 · see citing works
“Progressive disclosure has a long history in UI research, dating back to the Xerox Star and early word processing systems [14,61,74].”
BackgroundProgressive Disclosure: When, Why, and How Do Users Want Algorithmic Transparency Information?
Springer, A., & Whittaker, S. (2020) · ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems · doi:10.1145/3374218 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
- Authors
- Nakatani, L. H., & Rohrlich, J. A.
- Affiliations
- AT&T (United States) (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '83
- Publisher
- ACM Press
- Published
- 1983
- Pages
- 19-23
- OpenAlex
- W1988897535
- Cited by
- 59
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 4.25
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Interactive and Immersive Displays
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Usability and User Interface Design
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Data Visualization and Analytics
- Keywords
- soft machines, human-computer interaction, soft control, touch screen, real-time computer graphics, transfer of learning
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