Direct Manipulation: A Step Beyond Programming Languages
Ben Shneiderman. 1983. (View Paper → )
Certain interactive systems generate glowing enthusiasm among users-in marked contrast with the more common reaction of grudging acceptance or outright hostility. The enthusiastic users' reports are filled with positive feelings regarding
- mastery of the system,
- competence in the performance of their task,
- ease in learning the system originally and in assimilating advanced features,
- confidence in their capacity to retain mastery over time,
- enjoyment in using the system,
- eagerness to show it off to novices, and
- desire to explore more powerful aspects of the system.
These feelings are not, of course, universal, but the amalgam does convey an image of the truly pleased user. As I talked with these enthusiasts and examined the systems they used, I began to develop a model of the features that produced such delight.
The pleasure in using these systems stems from the capacity to manipulate the object of interest directly and to generate multiple alternatives rapidly.
Direct manipulation systems offer the satisfying experience of operating on visible objects. The computer becomes transparent, and users can concentrate on their tasks.
This paper coined the term "direct manipulation" as a new paradigm for human-computer interaction at a time when most computing required complex command languages. Shneiderman observed that direct manipulation software generated glowing enthusiasm from users compared to traditional interfaces.
The four key principles that produced user delight:
- Continuous representation of objects of interest
- Physical actions (e.g., mouse movements) instead of complex syntax
- Rapid, incremental, reversible operations with immediate visible results
- Layered learning approach that allows novices to become experts gradually
The brilliance of direct manipulation is that it reduces the need for syntactic knowledge by making semantic operations directly visible and manipulable on screen. The interface becomes "transparent," letting users focus on their tasks rather than on how to communicate with the computer.