User Interface: A Personal View (Alan kay)

Alan Kay created the most crucial advancement of human-computer interactivity, the GUI (graphical user interface). He created the GUI after being introduced to the mouse for computing, which was the first possibility to "navigate" information space. Kay created computing functions such as folders, menus,  and overlapping windows on desktops. The GUI was a new approach to interactive computing; it let people formulate ideas in real time by manipulating icons on the computer screen. The time came when the computer was accessible to non specialists, it was brought to the everyday man/woman.  The computer was then seen as something to be used as a form or expression an way to get out ones creativity. Kay believes that one day the computer might replace books. I think now in 2009 we're almost at that point, everything that you can find in a book is almost completely accessible via the internet. It makes me question what that means for us now, is the computer has taken over the book then what else can is take over or what will take over the computer. The computer vs. book idea also makes you think about how the computer has over time changed our culture and lifestyles. Modern user interface design came around in the 50s and 60s and included pointing devices, windows, menus, icons, gesture recognition, hypermedia, and the first personal computer. In 1968 the flat screen display was first seen. Kay in 1968 wondered when it would become large enough and cheap enough that it would be considered a useful display an object for the masses. Just like with the book situation mentioned earlier I also believe we're at the point where it may not be during these economic woes the most cost friendly but the flat screen is certainly readily available, and offered in a variety of sizes. I think Kay's discussion on the man vs. computer was interesting, when he said " even though humans are the animals that shape tools, it is in the nature of tools and man that learning to use tools reshapes us"(pg.4). He said that the printing press didn't change us because it made books more available, it did it by changing the thought pattern of those who learned how to read. This can be related to the computer now as we might be stepping away from books, that the time has come that the personal computer is readily available, but having a computer isn't as important as knowing how to use one. Once you know how to use a computer the possibilities are in a way endless, the opportunities for expression and creativity mixed with the whole interactive aspect. I enjoyed the section where Kay discusses how Mcluhan's writings about the computer as a medium. I think originally the computer was seen as a tool, and in the last 30 years or so has it been considered a medium. Going back to the book vs. computer topic kay adds in how the computer "also promised to surpass the book to bring about a new kind of renaissance by going beyond the static representations to dynamic simulation". I began to get confused when Kay began to discuss user interface design and how it should include the three mentalities (doing, image, and symbolic). I understand that one single mentality can not answer to an entire range of thinking and problem solving. The Hadamard study results helped put things together for me, and helped me get an idea of how the mentalities are seen/or related to one another.