there's computing history before the 40s, what was that like? where did punchcards come from?
alternative visions that didn't survive
why did these visionaries have their visions this way? societal influences/context?
delve lightly into the societal influences that made the earliest inventors of the computer to create these machines and what they envisioned them being used for at the time. Were there other applications for these early visions of computing other than freeing people from the burden of arithmetic?
better layout of the videos/images, maybe to the side:
I felt a bit confused about why the “1984 Apple TV ad” video was placed after the paragraph that follows the “Xerox Alto Restoration” video. I wonder if the 1984 Apple video can be moved below the text when it is mentioned in the following paragraph to make it easier for the reader to track. Additionally, to avoid having two videos following each other, I think that it might also make sense to move the “All the Widgets” video after the small paragraph that includes the hyperlinked “Powerpoint” text.
It was more interesting to watch a video after I had a sense of its context, but the location of the videos would always fool me into starting to watch before reading the text below.
I'd like to get history for a specific thing, like the mouse and how it evolved over time
I felt myself wanting to learn more about how these ideas came about and how they envisioned this would be used. Additionally, although I know that this is the first chapter of the book, I felt myself wondering about the evolution of the mouse over time and how the mouse came to be. I wonder if it might be helpful to discuss at a high level in this chapter the use of a mouse and when that idea first surfaced.
Copyediting suggestions:
In paragraph 6 (not counting quotations as paragraphs) about Licklider, the last sentence is kind of confusing: “With this vision, and through his work in United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and as a professor at MIT, funded or faciliated the research that would lead to the internet and the graphical user interface.”
If this refers to Licklider, then the sentence could be adjusted with adding “Licklider” or “he” after “MIT.” However, I’m not sure if I’ve interpreted this correctly.
The comma before “and as a professor at MIT” could potentially be removed to make this sentence less intimidating/chopped up.
“facilitated” is missing its first “t.”
In paragraph 10, all instances of “it’s” should be the possessive “its.”
In paragraph 12, the following sentence is really chopped up by commas: “Since the release of the Macintosh, companies like Apple, Microsoft, and now Google, have driven much of the engineering of user interfaces, deviating little from the original visions inspired by Bush, Licklider, Sutherland, Engelbart, and Kay, but continuing to harvest basic research for new paradigms of interaction, including the rapid proliferation of capacitive touch screens in the early 2000's in smartphones.”
If this all has to be one sentence, I’d consider using semicolons to split up the groups of lists and removing the comma after “interaction,” i.e. “Since the release of the Macintosh; companies like Apple, Microsoft, and now Google have driven much of the engineering of user interfaces, deviating little from the original visions inspired by Bush, Licklider, Sutherland, Engelbart, and Kay; but continuing to harvest basic research for new paradigms of interaction including the rapid proliferation of capacitive touch screens in the early 2000’s in smartphones.”
--
I appreciate how concise this chapter was, and how clearly and logically it communicated the “nothing new under the sun” nature of many computer-based interactions. We still use variations of the clicking, pointing, dragging, and stylus-based drawing mechanisms developed decades ago, and are in many ways fulfilling a vision of computers as an external memory bank for humans that was first articulated in the 1940s.
Here are 3 unsolicited suggestions that I’d like to submit in lieu of a quiz:
Chronology and history: I felt a little ungrounded at the very beginning of the chapter, because it seemed to jump a bit from FORTRAN (which I think was run on computers beginning in the 1950s), back in time to the concept of punched cards (1900s - 1970s, with a lot of popularity in the 1940s), and then back to the 1940s. The rest of the chapter went in a clearer chronological order.
It also seemed like the chapter really took off beginning in the 1940s, with the first computers. I would have liked some more detail about the evolution of early punched card tools (like the one in the first photo) to computers, and what interacting with those first computers was like.
Video location: This is more of a personal preference, but I’d consider placing the embedded videos after the paragraphs to which they referred, rather than before. It was more interesting to watch a video after I had a sense of its context, but the location of the videos would always fool me into starting to watch before reading the text below.
Copyediting suggestions:
In paragraph 6 (not counting quotations as paragraphs) about Licklider, the last sentence is kind of confusing: “With this vision, and through his work in United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and as a professor at MIT, funded or faciliated the research that would lead to the internet and the graphical user interface.”
If this refers to Licklider, then the sentence could be adjusted with adding “Licklider” or “he” after “MIT.” However, I’m not sure if I’ve interpreted this correctly.
The comma before “and as a professor at MIT” could potentially be removed to make this sentence less intimidating/chopped up.
“facilitated” is missing its first “t.”
In paragraph 10, all instances of “it’s” should be the possessive “its.”
In paragraph 12, the following sentence is really chopped up by commas: “Since the release of the Macintosh, companies like Apple, Microsoft, and now Google, have driven much of the engineering of user interfaces, deviating little from the original visions inspired by Bush, Licklider, Sutherland, Engelbart, and Kay, but continuing to harvest basic research for new paradigms of interaction, including the rapid proliferation of capacitive touch screens in the early 2000's in smartphones.”
If this all has to be one sentence, I’d consider using semicolons to split up the groups of lists and removing the comma after “interaction,” i.e. “Since the release of the Macintosh; companies like Apple, Microsoft, and now Google have driven much of the engineering of user interfaces, deviating little from the original visions inspired by Bush, Licklider, Sutherland, Engelbart, and Kay; but continuing to harvest basic research for new paradigms of interaction including the rapid proliferation of capacitive touch screens in the early 2000’s in smartphones.”
Chapter 1 - A history of user interfaces critique:
In reading Chapter 1: A history of user interfaces in User Interface Software and Technology, I found it to be very informative and played a nice balance of providing relevant information about the history of user interfaces while not overloading the reader with text. I also think that the videos provided in the chapter helpful to help visualize what these earlier computing devices looked like. That said, I do wonder if these could be shortened somehow or if images could also be used in some instances instead of videos.
Another thought I had that could improve this chapter is to potentially move some of the videos around so it reads a little easier. I felt a bit confused about why the “1984 Apple TV ad” video was placed after the paragraph that follows the “Xerox Alto Restoration” video. I wonder if the 1984 Apple video can be moved below the text when it is mentioned in the following paragraph to make it easier for the reader to track. Additionally, to avoid having two videos following each other, I think that it might also make sense to move the “All the Widgets” video after the small paragraph that includes the hyperlinked “Powerpoint” text.
In terms of the content in the chapter itself, I think it might be both helpful and interesting to delve lightly into the societal influences that made the earliest inventors of the computer to create these machines and what they envisioned them being used for at the time. Were there other applications for these early visions of computing other than freeing people from the burden of arithmetic? I felt myself wanting to learn more about how these ideas came about and how they envisioned this would be used. Additionally, although I know that this is the first chapter of the book, I felt myself wondering about the evolution of the mouse over time and how the mouse came to be. I wonder if it might be helpful to discuss at a high level in this chapter the use of a mouse and when that idea first surfaced
history:
1. Perhaps provide more critique of the institution? I feel that your position on historical figures/agencies is fairly neutral if not optimistic; does this reflect your actual opinion on the course of history? I think I would want to feel that there is more at stake for history having occurred the way that it did.
2. Some videos felt like they could be pushed to a "further materials." I could not sit through all those without feeling like "I get the point already."
3. Is there any way to include a more diverse cast of historical figures? There is no mention of women let alone a person of color who contributed to the discourse on computation.
there's computing history before the 40s, what was that like? where did punchcards come from?
alternative visions that didn't survive
why did these visionaries have their visions this way? societal influences/context? delve lightly into the societal influences that made the earliest inventors of the computer to create these machines and what they envisioned them being used for at the time. Were there other applications for these early visions of computing other than freeing people from the burden of arithmetic?
better layout of the videos/images, maybe to the side: I felt a bit confused about why the “1984 Apple TV ad” video was placed after the paragraph that follows the “Xerox Alto Restoration” video. I wonder if the 1984 Apple video can be moved below the text when it is mentioned in the following paragraph to make it easier for the reader to track. Additionally, to avoid having two videos following each other, I think that it might also make sense to move the “All the Widgets” video after the small paragraph that includes the hyperlinked “Powerpoint” text. It was more interesting to watch a video after I had a sense of its context, but the location of the videos would always fool me into starting to watch before reading the text below.
I'd like to get history for a specific thing, like the mouse and how it evolved over time I felt myself wanting to learn more about how these ideas came about and how they envisioned this would be used. Additionally, although I know that this is the first chapter of the book, I felt myself wondering about the evolution of the mouse over time and how the mouse came to be. I wonder if it might be helpful to discuss at a high level in this chapter the use of a mouse and when that idea first surfaced.
In paragraph 10, all instances of “it’s” should be the possessive “its.”
In paragraph 12, the following sentence is really chopped up by commas: “Since the release of the Macintosh, companies like Apple, Microsoft, and now Google, have driven much of the engineering of user interfaces, deviating little from the original visions inspired by Bush, Licklider, Sutherland, Engelbart, and Kay, but continuing to harvest basic research for new paradigms of interaction, including the rapid proliferation of capacitive touch screens in the early 2000's in smartphones.” If this all has to be one sentence, I’d consider using semicolons to split up the groups of lists and removing the comma after “interaction,” i.e. “Since the release of the Macintosh; companies like Apple, Microsoft, and now Google have driven much of the engineering of user interfaces, deviating little from the original visions inspired by Bush, Licklider, Sutherland, Engelbart, and Kay; but continuing to harvest basic research for new paradigms of interaction including the rapid proliferation of capacitive touch screens in the early 2000’s in smartphones.”
-- I appreciate how concise this chapter was, and how clearly and logically it communicated the “nothing new under the sun” nature of many computer-based interactions. We still use variations of the clicking, pointing, dragging, and stylus-based drawing mechanisms developed decades ago, and are in many ways fulfilling a vision of computers as an external memory bank for humans that was first articulated in the 1940s. Here are 3 unsolicited suggestions that I’d like to submit in lieu of a quiz:
Chronology and history: I felt a little ungrounded at the very beginning of the chapter, because it seemed to jump a bit from FORTRAN (which I think was run on computers beginning in the 1950s), back in time to the concept of punched cards (1900s - 1970s, with a lot of popularity in the 1940s), and then back to the 1940s. The rest of the chapter went in a clearer chronological order. It also seemed like the chapter really took off beginning in the 1940s, with the first computers. I would have liked some more detail about the evolution of early punched card tools (like the one in the first photo) to computers, and what interacting with those first computers was like.
Video location: This is more of a personal preference, but I’d consider placing the embedded videos after the paragraphs to which they referred, rather than before. It was more interesting to watch a video after I had a sense of its context, but the location of the videos would always fool me into starting to watch before reading the text below.
Copyediting suggestions: In paragraph 6 (not counting quotations as paragraphs) about Licklider, the last sentence is kind of confusing: “With this vision, and through his work in United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and as a professor at MIT, funded or faciliated the research that would lead to the internet and the graphical user interface.” If this refers to Licklider, then the sentence could be adjusted with adding “Licklider” or “he” after “MIT.” However, I’m not sure if I’ve interpreted this correctly. The comma before “and as a professor at MIT” could potentially be removed to make this sentence less intimidating/chopped up. “facilitated” is missing its first “t.”
In paragraph 10, all instances of “it’s” should be the possessive “its.”
In paragraph 12, the following sentence is really chopped up by commas: “Since the release of the Macintosh, companies like Apple, Microsoft, and now Google, have driven much of the engineering of user interfaces, deviating little from the original visions inspired by Bush, Licklider, Sutherland, Engelbart, and Kay, but continuing to harvest basic research for new paradigms of interaction, including the rapid proliferation of capacitive touch screens in the early 2000's in smartphones.” If this all has to be one sentence, I’d consider using semicolons to split up the groups of lists and removing the comma after “interaction,” i.e. “Since the release of the Macintosh; companies like Apple, Microsoft, and now Google have driven much of the engineering of user interfaces, deviating little from the original visions inspired by Bush, Licklider, Sutherland, Engelbart, and Kay; but continuing to harvest basic research for new paradigms of interaction including the rapid proliferation of capacitive touch screens in the early 2000’s in smartphones.”
Chapter 1 - A history of user interfaces critique: In reading Chapter 1: A history of user interfaces in User Interface Software and Technology, I found it to be very informative and played a nice balance of providing relevant information about the history of user interfaces while not overloading the reader with text. I also think that the videos provided in the chapter helpful to help visualize what these earlier computing devices looked like. That said, I do wonder if these could be shortened somehow or if images could also be used in some instances instead of videos. Another thought I had that could improve this chapter is to potentially move some of the videos around so it reads a little easier. I felt a bit confused about why the “1984 Apple TV ad” video was placed after the paragraph that follows the “Xerox Alto Restoration” video. I wonder if the 1984 Apple video can be moved below the text when it is mentioned in the following paragraph to make it easier for the reader to track. Additionally, to avoid having two videos following each other, I think that it might also make sense to move the “All the Widgets” video after the small paragraph that includes the hyperlinked “Powerpoint” text. In terms of the content in the chapter itself, I think it might be both helpful and interesting to delve lightly into the societal influences that made the earliest inventors of the computer to create these machines and what they envisioned them being used for at the time. Were there other applications for these early visions of computing other than freeing people from the burden of arithmetic? I felt myself wanting to learn more about how these ideas came about and how they envisioned this would be used. Additionally, although I know that this is the first chapter of the book, I felt myself wondering about the evolution of the mouse over time and how the mouse came to be. I wonder if it might be helpful to discuss at a high level in this chapter the use of a mouse and when that idea first surfaced
history: