Chris McLay.

I’ve been trawling through my archived files, backing up, tidying up, etc. and I came across something I thought was stuck in my collection of 3.5” floppy disks. I found copies of the first ever commercial software I designed and sold – The Box Office Manager, a single user ticketing system for small theatres.

Unfortunately there is no way I could ever run the software now as it was written for the days of System 6, with black and white monitors, and Motorola 68000 processors (that’s pre-PowerPC Macs, let alone pre-Intel Macs). I will try and find the disks and an old Mac to run them on, but that’s for another day.

Luckily there was some marketing material and manuals in with the software, so I have some screen shots from what I think is version 1.0, and some from version 1.5 beta (see below). It was great to look back at the screen caps and see how bad the design was. Not that bad considering I had no real software design training.

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Well, I finally got my thesis back and I’m very happy to say that I’ve come away with a first class honours. I’m really relieved. Firstly because I worked really hard and think it is really good work, but also, I expected to get stung by my slightly unorthodox writing style. Luckily it all seems to have gone well.

Thank you so much to everyone to who helped, and supported me during this time, especially my supervisor Ingrid, the nameless people who gave up their time, Jacquie and Gene, Geoff, Claire, Klazina, Neil, the clients who have gone without, and friends and family who haven’t seen me lately.

I’ve put the thesis up online for anyone who is interested, or wants to pretend that they have read it: http://eeoh.com.au/chris/honoursthesis/

So finally I have found time to post the final version of the score for everyone to see. I’m pretty happy with the overall experiment, even if I don’t really like the final product — visually it’s a little rough and child like. That said with more time (and a faster computer) I think a more aesthetically appealing version could be produced.

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The following four books – Apple Human Interface Guidelines, The Art of Human Computer Interface Design, Design Research, The Origins of Creativity – have also provided interesting reading over recent months, though perhaps not as through provoking as others read recently…

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Shneiderman, Ben., and Catherine Plaisant. Designing the User Interface, Fourth Edition: Strategies for Effective Human Computer Interaction, Boston: Pearson Addison Wesley, 2005

When I first picked up this book, I had the feeling I was onto a good thing. It’s a brand new 2005 fourth edition (over 19 years), it’s heavy with a well-packed 650 pages, all printed in full colour, and flicking through the book, it is obvious the authors have applied the subject matter of the book to it’s design and layout.

I have to admit at this stage that I have not tried to read the entire book, that said I have read several sections and it does appear to deliver everything my initial anticipation suggested. The book is well structured and aimed at practitioners, researchers and students in the field. It covers a broad range of subject matter, from basic theories and guidelines, through design processes, interface evaluations, detailed discussions and examples of various interaction styles, and specific design issues. Each section provides substantial further reading guides, and solid summaries of the content covered.

Overall this book is a combination text and working reference. It is comprehensive, well balanced and up to date. Every student, researcher or worker involved in the production and development of software or hardware that interacts with users should have a copy and be familiar with this book.

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Raskin, Jef. The Humane Interface: new directions for designing interactive systems. Stoughton: Addison Wesley, 2000

By many, Jef Raskin, is believed to be the creator or inventor of the Macintosh computer, and while he did father the project inside Apple, he left a long time prior to it’s eventual release and has been a heavy critic and opponent of Apple and their products ever since. It seems to be one of the longest love-hate relationships in the industry, and it comes across as very personal. Even in this text, which was written at least 15 years later, Jef shows a strong personal antagonism towards Apple and it’s products.

It is this constant personal critique, which is almost whinging in places, which in my mind really lets this book down. Especially when the few positive critiques are almost exclusively for Jef’s other products such as the Cannon Cat. I don’t really have an issue with the use of projects which Jef has been involved in, but there is little or no distance shown in this book and this makes many of the ideas and concepts presented difficult to take seriously.

If you can get past this then the book has some excellent coverage of the issues facing computer users, and the designers of such systems. I feel this is where the book is most valuable. The solutions and interfaces presented by Jef to get around these issues, feel clunky and too focused on avoiding one or two key issues raised. I’m not convinced they are always significantly better than some existing solutions, but they certainly make interesting reading and are cause for considerable thought.

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Shneiderman, Ben. Leonardo’s Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies, Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002

“The old computing is about what computers could do; the new computing is about what users can do.” (p. 2) So opens Ben Shneiderman’s book on the future possibilities for human computer interaction. Leonardo’s Laptop is a cast into the not to distant future to inspire both users and developers to improve the functionality of our computer systems and bring them more into line with what users are actually seeking to do in their lives.

When I started reading this book I was looking for a much stronger level of practice from the book, especially as it is loosely based around the works and practices of Leonardo da Vinci. However I found the book much more philosophical and inspirational in it’s overall tone. Where the book does venture into practice I didn’t find the leaps and bounds I expected, but did find solid well considered examples of how computers could (and probably already should) operate with us in our every day lives. As the first book I read in starting this unit I think this was actually a very good thing, as it refreshed my existing knowledge of the area, and opened up my mind to different ways of thinking and different perspectives without getting bogged down in practical theory and whether or not I thought the theory could be applied directly today.

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When I first came up with the idea for this visual music project, the method of working I had in mind was very similar to what is outlined below. Yet, while I never completely abandoned the ideas, I lost faith in their ability to create a solid piece of work that would achieve my goals, and so began my search for other creative inputs and methods that would assist me in creative this artwork which said nothing assist me to develop this creative artwork, which tries to signify nothing.

Part of the problem of trying to signify nothing is that it is not actually possible to achieve, all you can do is aim to signify as little as possible. However, if I develop images I think go with a piece of music they will signify something to me, based on the music, and my interpretation of the music will be passed on to the audience. To avoid this I have to play a series of mind games with my self trying to adjust my thoughts and interpretations into imagery that somehow relates to and enhances the imagery without adding new meanings to the music. Confused? I was…

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