Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!ut-sally!im4u!milano!wex From: wex@milano.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng Subject: Re: Abstract of Tech Report on Information Presentation (Display Layout) Message-ID: <4981@milano.UUCP> Date: Mon, 27-Jul-87 14:23:30 EDT Article-I.D.: milano.4981 Posted: Mon Jul 27 14:23:30 1987 Date-Received: Tue, 28-Jul-87 05:08:03 EDT References: <1361@wanginst.EDU> Sender: wex@milano.UUCP Organization: MCC, Austin, TX Lines: 31 Keywords: human factors user interface design page layout screen display In article <1361@wanginst.EDU>, perlman@wanginst.EDU (Gary Perlman) writes: > The goal of information layout is to physically display information to > reinforce the underlying structure of the information. In this paper, > I describe an axiomatic model of information layout. The model has > three levels: (1) a device-independent representation for structured > information [I hope I haven't abstracted out too much context.] Gary, I'm curious. I can see how you could fairly easily achieve a significant level of device independence, but how about domain-dependence? For example, there are dozens of "box & arrow"-type languages, each of which uses slightly different representation based on the domain under consideration. EG: KR languages use arrows that go the opposite way from those used in object-oriented inheritance graphs. The information is similarly structured (boxes, arrows, hierarchies, dependencies, etc.), but the representation is governed by the domain of concern. Comments welcomed. -- Alan Wexelblat ARPA: WEX@MCC.COM UUCP: {seismo, harvard, gatech, pyramid, &c.}!sally!im4u!milano!wex "Oh well, a touch of grey, Kinda suits you anyway."