Ben Bederson is a professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Maryland who studies human-computer interaction and zooming user interfaces (ZUIs). In this document, he discusses several themes related to ZUIs and innovation. He provides examples of early ZUIs from the 1990s and examines why some succeeded while others failed. He also explores what constitutes innovation, noting that new ideas are often built upon prior work and existing technologies. The document considers challenges with ZUIs and what factors have contributed to more successful implementations of zooming interfaces.
2. Problem: Show More Than Fits
on the screen
Solution categories:
Scroll
Multiple pages (tabs, link, search …)
Denser displays (info vis)
Fisheye
Zooming
Is always a problem – and worse on small screens
3. Zooming Examples
OS X Expose
iPhone
Google Maps
Adobe Photoshop
Theme 1
Are ZUIs a success?
When do / don’t they work?
Theme 2
How does innovation work?
14. What Happened?
“Eye candy” that doesn’t add much
Don’t scale well
Datasets aren’t persistent
Navigation mechanisms difficult
Spatial memory not as good as hoped
2D layouts hard to scan
People don’t know where to zoom
Difficult to author
=> Instead
simple
linear structures
hierarchical structures
geographic systems
search
19. ZUI Benefit
Engaging
Feels natural
Improves some task performance
Hurts other tasks
More creative potential
People like overviews
Animation effective
Structured content useful
20. Challenges
Too complex
Hard to scale
Hard to design & author
Temporal separation requires STM to integrate
multiple views
Spatial memory & spatial navigation limited
Navigation controls non-standard, tricky
Remaining technical challenges
21. What is Innovation?
Dictionary:
"A new method, idea, product"
"A creation resulting from study and experimentation"
"The act of starting something for the first time"
"Producing something like nothing done or experienced
or created before"
22. "There is nothing new under the sun”
-- Ecclesiastes 1:9
Movie themes:
Good vs. Evil
Love conquers all
Individual v. society
Loss of innocence
Man v. nature
23. How Do You Innovate?
Bolt from the blue? Ideas when you …
Read the literature
Competitive analysis
Solve real problems
Use available technologies
Consider cost
=> Innovations happen in a cultural context
28. Dynabook Apple Newton Palm Pilot
1980’s 1993 1996
29. Dynabook Apple Newton Palm Pilot
1980’s 1993 1996
30. Is Nothing Innovative?
Of course not
The point is that innovation is more subtle than it first
appears
31. When is Copying Fair?
Laws give us the societally accepted answer:
Fine line between protecting invention
Always...
and stopping creative innovation
Except when protected by
• Copyright (concrete expression)
• Trademark (image, logo, short sequence of
words)
• Trade secret (most things you don't tell others)
• Patent (processes, things, designs)
37. Questions?
Benjamin B. Bederson
Computer Science Department
Human-Computer Interaction Lab
Institute for Advanced Computer Studies
University of Maryland
www.cs.umd.edu/~bederson
@bederson