Stepping up to the Interface

If you are relatively new to using a computer to design a page, this chapter suggests an initial approach. When learning a specific page-design program, it is always best to understand the real-world metaphor that the software uses to describe the tools and techniques that a graphic designer would use. I have always found it useful for the student to understand how a program describes the computer interface as a working graphic studio, and then position the student in relation to the computer and the design. Learning software on its own is insufficient, even though page-design training often tends to be confined to software learning. Understanding comes from your knowledge of the metaphor that the computer uses to describe the real world. If you, as a student, understand the logic of the metaphor and its functions, you are then equipped to learn, develop and exploit the nature of digital design.

There are many page-design programs. However, the principles of stepping up to the interface are almost always the same. Students who have undertaken the case studies in the final section of this book have all used QuarkXPress. Most interface references will be to that program.

You learn to navigate through the real world by recognizing representational symbols that describe objects, and the actions that you should take as a consequence. You are able to adjust the sound level on your computer with relative ease because the graphic representation of the volume control is familiar. An unfamiliar image would not enable you to understand its function. Learning to use any page-design program is no different. By unpacking and understanding these processes you should be able to familiarize yourself each time your chosen software package is upgraded or undergoes a major redesign of its interface and functions.

You understand the metaphor that the computer volume control uses to describe the real world; when you adjust the volume control this is exactly what you expect. Learning to use your chosen page-design software is no different.

By doing so you can extend this approach and apply this method to any software. This introductory chapter could be used for any program which has been written to operate in a windows environment for either Macintosh or PC. What is important is your understanding of what the action words mean and how the desktop metaphor of noun and verb represent these actions. When using the image-manipulation software Photoshop, a photographer would understand the function of a Noise Filter for Despeckling or altering the radius of the Median because it relates to a real-life process that he or she is familiar with. A graphic designer will understand the language of typography used as the action verbs within page design programs, such as track (overall space between letters and words) and kern (individual space between letters).

The nature of design using a computer allows you to reflect upon human perception, which tends to be altered through the new possibilities that the digital capability of a computer can offer. By exploring the potential of design using computers, new opportunities can be established. There are three distinct concepts you need to understand to effectively use page-design programs as a tool:

The software object/action computer interface is a metaphor for working in a graphic design studio;

Knowledge of design, its principles and its terminology are just as important when using a computer to design as they ever were;

Certain elements of design remain constant, while other elements can be exploited using a computer.

Understanding the desktop metaphor and being familiar with computer interfaces encourages you to make the most of new opportunities. Pointing and selecting becomes inseparable from the desktop assumption that people are inquisitive; they want to learn, especially if the environment appears recognizable and engaging. With most page-design programs the design studio metaphor creates an interface that allows you to use the tools of graphic design. To operate the computer you look for objects that are familiar. These objects suggest their function; even though the language and description of functionality needs only to be approximate and not exact (for more on interface iconography, go to www.w3icons.com).

The Interface as a Metaphor for the Real World

Successful computer operation owes much to the rules of Isotype (International System Of TYpographic Picture Education). The importance of Isotype with regard to computer interaction is the collaboration between Ogden, who was the inventor of Basic English (British American Scientific International Commercial), and Neurath. Ogden had asked Neurath to publish an outline of his visual language; Neurath agreed if Ogden also allowed Basic to be combined with Isotype in an additional book, Basic by Isotype. Ogden's Basic English contained 850 core words which were mainly nouns or verbs.

These two fundamental paradigms of object and action are central to the computer desktop metaphor. The decision to publish an explanation of Isotype and a version underpinned by selective language is crucial to the way in which the system was understood and adopted for other uses. The introduction of the 1980 facsimile International picture language/Internationale Bildersprache cites instructions for telephone systems, traffic signs and so on. It was not until January 1983 that the concept of icons as a plausible interface between user and computer was made possible with the development and launch of the Apple Lisa by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

O. Neurath, Basic by Isotype, Psych Minatures General Series (London: Kegan Paul, 1936).

Before the development of an intuitive interface all human/computer interaction was through command-line instructions. This required a high level of computer understanding. Computers were for computing and not for ordinary working tasks. Many graphic communication systems have evolved from the Isotype/Basic method, and it is only natural that the Apple Lisa developed the object/action interface. Learning complex Boolean logic was no longer required to operate a computer. People with real needs could now execute complex code sequences without the need to recall correct command-lines. For the PC, the metaphor was not truly complete until the introduction of Windows 95. Both Macintosh and PC operating systems have now become indistinguishable from each other; the interface metaphor is complete. When the same page-design programs have been launched on either platform there is little or no difference in how they look and function.

O. Neurath, International picture language/Internationale Bildersprache, a facsimile reprint of the 1936 English edition, forward by Robin Kinross, Psyche Miniatures General Series (London:...