Paradoxien der Direkten Manipulation

Abstract

Direct manipulation claims to offer a number of advantages. In practice, however, direct manipulation is not used very often, even graphics programms are controlled mostly by means of conventional menu techniques. Nature and range of direct manipulation are debatable and seem quite changeable. Often direct manipulation is reduced to a picture show. Restrictions like the number of supplied movements or actions and paradoxies such as the contradiction between realism and abstraction upon the design of pictograms are important reasons why direct manipulation is restricted to some parts of operating systems and application programs. The different communication capacity of pictures and text (menus, commands) is important too. New ideas like video interfaces with voice input and output as essential components point to a stagnant or even reduced importance of direct manipulation.