REVIEWED by Ferdie Poblete This month's TORCHI meeting was held at Alias' headquarters in downtown Toronto. It was standing room only. Alias provided all attendees with a promotional video that highlighted Alias' role as a leading producer of computer graphics and related software. Alias' reputation in computer graphics plus Bill Buxton's draw as a speaker led to a large turn-out for this month's meeting: people wanted to see innovative ideas and techniques... and they weren't disappointed. Bill Buxton (UofT associate professor and Alias' principal scientist) began by explaining why he joined Alias and what the objective of his group was. Bill also reviewed his past research and outlined his mandate at Alias. He explained how he and his graduate students are carrying out research, some of which is supported or funded by Alias. The idea behind this collaboration is that despite having access to the resources of Alias, they are not contractually restricted to deliverables. In return Alias has access to the research and ideas that Buxton's group produces as well as a connection to other research groups that are working in conjunction with him. He and his varied crew of programmers, designers, and researchers are spearheading Alias' UI initiative. Bill expects that this will result in new standards in UI...not just a facelift for Alias. "The enemy is mediocrity!" Buxton indicated that while there has been a great increase in the growth of technology and in the promise of functionality, human capabilities are still at the same level as they were 20 years ago and are unlikely to increase significantly in the future. Systems and programs are becoming more complicated but the people using them still have the same abilities and limitations. This was usually solved by making simpler interfaces and menus, but according to Buxton, merely simplifying an interface does not make the system easier to use. "We are pushing the limits of human capabilities," he states "Nelson's 10 minute rule is no longer valid." (Ted Nelson argued that software should require no more than 10 minutes of training before it could be used effectively.) As an example, he states that a violin is a very complex tool and it does take a long time to master, but once mastered the output it produces is well worth the effort... "Ease of use is not the issue..." says Buxton, "...'user friendly' is not the proper approach!" What is needed is the speeding up of the transition from a novice user (problem solving behaviour) to an expert user (automatic skilled behaviour)... "The issue is skill!...learning useless skills is bad design!" Buxton then detailed his two strategies for better UI design: (1) reduced complexity and (2) better skill transfer. Normally, society is resistant to change and many of the old concepts (i.e. the QWERTY keyboard) are now well established norms. This means that people can be very resistant to a radical changes in system design and metaphors (i.e. the DVORAK keyboard). What Buxton proposed is what he terms a RADICAL EVOLUTION in UI design. Though this may seem to be an oxymoron, what is meant by this is the gradual introduction of new interface concepts using older and familiar ones as a basis for design. The projects that were then presented were examples of his radical evolution: - a system for the automatic rendering of computer-generated, three-dimensional models from a set of rough sketches, (Di Pryce-Evans) - transparent menus and displays which do not clutter the already limited space on a computer screen and otherwise distract the user from what is being worked on (Beverly Harrison & Shumin Zhai) - marking menus, a variation on pie menus, which uses gestures to execute complex functions and operations, but much faster than traditional menu selection and allow for a natural progression from novice to expert use (Gord Kurtenbach) - the creation, selection, and manipulation of graphical objects using a two-handed interface; either by using mouse and trackball controllers, or the manipulation of physical objects on a two-dimensional surface (Bill Buxton & George Fitzmaurice) In all these projects, the technology has been available for a while, and the concepts are already familiar to users (see-through templates, sign language, and object manipulation) but what is novel is its usage and how its takes a greater advantage of human capabilities. This is the idea behind Alias' commitment to pioneering UI research. Combining the ideas and imagination of Bill Buxton and group, and the resources available to Alias, this cutting-edge technology may become more commonplace in the systems and computers to come. Those present at the meeting certainly got a fascinating introduction to a variety of UI methods that may be turning up on their desktops in the not-so-distant future.