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Communication + Dynamic Interface = Better User Experience

Currently, by entwining the association between content and meaning and the physical form used to represent it, software user interfaces do not mimic natural human-to-human communication. Within natural communication, the content and meaning that is to be conveyed is detached from its physical form, and it is only encoded into a physical form at the time of transmission. This timing of the point at which the content and meaning are encoded is important. It gives the flexibility to encode the content and meaning in a form that is suitable for the characteristics of the situation (e.g., the channels available, the languages used by the parties, and the terminology that they know). This ensures that humans communicate with each other in what they consider to be the most appropriate and accurate manner, leading to encoding schemes from which the parties can access the content and meaning in an easy method.

This is not currently the case for software user interfaces, which use a too tightly coupled association between the content and meaning and the physical form used to encode it. By utilising contemporary Web-based or object-orientated component architectures, this problem of fixed encoding schemes can be overcome. Therefore, software user interfaces can more closely mimic natural language encoding and gain all the benefits that it brings.

THE HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION BENEFITS

The human race rarely uses fixed associations between content or meaning and its physical representation. Instead, people encode the meaning into a form appropriate for the situation and purpose of the communication. Communication can be encoded using different ontologies such as different languages and terminology. Communication is thus able to take different physical channels (e.g., sound through the air, or writing on paper), all of which attempt to ensure that the content or meaning is communicated between the parties in the most accurate and efficient manner available for the specific characteristics of the situation. Currently, this is not the case with computer interfaces; contemporary interfaces instead tend to adopt a “one size fits all” approach for the majority of the interface.

In taking this one-size-fits-all approach, content and meaning may not be transmitted to the user in the most accurate form, if it is communicated at all. The characteristics of the situation and participants are not taken into account. This makes the interface harder to use than might be, if it can be used at all. Some users, such as those with a sensory disability or those with a different native language, may not be able to access the information as it has been encoded using an inaccessible physical form (e.g., visual stimuli are inaccessible for the blind). Or it has been encoded using a foreign language, which the user does not understand. This immediately prevents the user from accessing the content and meaning conveyed by that form of presentation.