3 points and question, Tufte and Laurel

1. Common ground is a “jointly inhabited ‘space,’” which involves the collaboration of the computer and the human. Common ground acts as a “shared context for action in which both are agents” (Laurel, 4).

2. Effective interfaces should be built based on what the human or humans are going to do or take action on, rather than what graphic designers think the screen should look like (Laurel, 7).

3. Contemporary optical art that we use in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc. relies on moiré effects. The moiré effect is design that “interacts with the physiological tremor of the eye to produce the distracting appearance of vibration and movement” (Tufte, 107). While moiré designs were created to make distinctions, Tufte argues they are chartjunk and noise which clutters space and makes it harder to make distinctions.

Question: Theater largely consists of design, decorations, props, set, costume, make-up, etc. Laurel says that “decoration is suspect because it may get in the way of the serious work to be done.” Isn’t this a contradiction when comparing interface design with the theater? What is she getting at here?