Computers as theatre
by Brenda Laurel · first published 1991
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4HN commenters
2011–2025first – last mentioned
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This is used in usability and UX design a lot. It's the fundamental thing that makes UI work. I've always liked the title of Brenda Laurel's book - Computers as Theatre
on “Git Branches: Intuition and Reality” ↗…haven't been or have been under-realized. Imagine what, "social histories for extending research" would look like if taken seriously. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-m... Computers As Theatre by Brenda Laurel; "think of the computer not as a tool but a medium." Brenda is an actress that applied Aristotle's Poetics to computer design. An absolute foundational classic. https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~social/reading/Laurel-ComputersAsThe...…
on “Free Programing Books” ↗…Here you're going to want to pick up a copy of Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art" to get a handle on the finer points of cognition and storytelling. See also Brenda Laurel's "Computers as Theatre". [2] For example there's a spelling "strategy" that involve using visual memory to recall the word (as a picture) and a kinethestic check for correctness. In other words, remember the word, feel that…
on “How can we develop transformative tools for thought?” ↗…via JS emulator for the underlying RISC CPU: https://schierlm.github.io/OberonEmulator/ ------ edit: And if you want to read a book that fell through a wormhole from thirty years in the future read: "Computers as Theatre" by Brenda Laurel.
on “Learning from Terminals to Design the Future of User Interfaces” ↗…want to combine "memory palace" with "zooming" UI in a kind of pseudo-3D (I think of it as 2.618...D but the exact fractal dimension isn't important I don't think.) Then infuse with Brenda Laurel's "Computers as Theatre"... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooming_user_interface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Laurel - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/239018.Computers_as_Thea...
on “Simula: A VR window manager for Linux” ↗…interface, but in reality are just causing the real end-users to come up with a new model of the interface that they can use to get their work done. This Fallacy was first described to me in Brenda Laurel's Computers as Theatre. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?BrendaLaurel
on “Google rolls out algorithm change in the US” ↗