Reading 2 - Xavier Camacho

           

The complex world of theater is an interesting analogy for the design of computer interfaces. While watching a play, there is a story being acted out in front of you, on stage. This story being acted out is like what we see when we interact with a computer’s interface. We interact with a computer with an idea in mind and attempt to accomplish that idea by using computer features. In the sense that we are watching the computer generate what we want, yes, theater is like a computer interface, but I would challenge some of the author’s analogy.

            We are not able to determine what the actors’ are thinking when they are on stage, but we can see them work off of each other throughout the play. Likewise, we are not at a computer to watch what is going on inside of the computer, we are there to enjoy it. My argument towards this analogy begins with the fact that we cannot affect what will happen in the theater. There is already a determined script to the theater’s plays and many different directors can alter that script, but it will still already be predetermined.

The set to the theater can be beautiful and engaging just like a computer’s interface, but it is still up to the user to work the computer to get various results. The theater is used as an analogy towards the interface of the computer, yet the theater and interface can still be arguably too different to be compared. On one set, there are predetermined scripts and stories to be told no matter what the the audience chooses. On the other set, the computer interface can look beautiful, just like the set, but its actions are based off of what the user chooses to do with that interface.