Direct Combination: a new user interaction strategy
Simon Holland, Open University
The talk presents Direct Combination, a new user interaction
strategy. Direct Combination may be viewed variously as: a systematic
extension to Direct Manipulation; a concise navigational framework to help
users find the operations they need; and as a framework to make a greater
range and variety of operations available to the user, without
overburdening the user. Several Direct Combination styles using drag and
drop through a magic lens, portals, and other techniques will be
presented. We show how, in situations where it is hard to locate commands
from a large command set, users may use Direct Combination to constrain
their search space in a simple and intuitive manner. We demonstrate a
variety of interaction styles that make Direct Combination available
without interfering with conventional drag and drop or cut and paste.
Novel interaction objects such as the portal and command needle are
presented. While Direct Combination may be seen as an extension of Direct
Manipulation, it may also be applied to a wide range of other user
interaction styles. Examples from various hypothetical systems, and from
The n-dimensional case is considered, and the implications of Direct
Combination in general are considered.
For more information contact: s.holland@open.ac.uk