Humane Interface, The: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems

Chapter Three. Meanings, Modes, Monotony, and Myths

There is no progress without struggle.

—Frederick Douglass

So that we can discuss interface with precision, a few definitions and conventions of notations are introduced here. We use these tools, building on the notion of locus of attention from Chapter 2, to understand modes and their harmful effects on interface design. We introduce a beneficial property of interfaces, called monotony, which leads to a critique of interfaces that have beginner and expert modes.