Variation in element and action: supporting simultaneous development of alternative solutions

The complexity of many problems necessitates creating and exploring multiple, alternative solutions. However, current user interfaces do not cleanly support creating alternatives at a time when they are likely to be discovered: as users interactively modify data. This paper presents Parallel Paths, a novel model of interaction that facilitates generating, manipulating, and comparing alternative solutions. In contrast to existing approaches such as automated history capture tools, Parallel Paths emphasizes the active, simultaneous development of multiple, alternative solutions. We demonstrate this model of interaction in Parallel Pies, a user interface mechanism developed for image manipulation tasks that allows users to: easily create solution alternatives as they interact with a command; embed the alternatives in the same workspace; manipulate the alternatives independently or simultaneously as if they were the same object; and perform side-by-side comparisons of each. Results from a...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Michael A. Terry, Elizabeth D. Mynatt, Kumiyo Nakakoji, Yasuhiro Yamamoto
• Keywords: Alternative Solutions, CHI 2004, Current User Interfaces, Human Computer Interaction, Parallel Paths