Direct Combination
Direct Combination is new user interaction technique with the potential to
- simplify a wide range of user interactions,
- allow new services to be created on the fly,
- promote flexible personalisation,
- allow easy interaction between virtual and tangible objects, and to
- facilitate appropriation.
More generally, as mobile and pervasive computing resources proliferate, there is an increasing need for end users to create one-off services by causing two or more devices or resources to interoperate together, often in ad-hoc circumstances. In general, users find this kind of process hard to manage. At the same time, existing UI architectures are not well suited to supporting such activities. It is proposed that a good basis for addressing these and related problems in a principled, scaleable way is the principle of Direct Combination (DC). Both analytical arguments and preliminary empirical evidence suggests that DC can reduce the amount of search required by the user and can offer interactions which are faster, less frustrating, and impose less mental load on the user. Direct Combination makes it easy for individuals and organisations to publish and adapt new services, and to create viewpoints to facilitate different ecologies of activities.
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