Abstract
Data resources and applications accessible through today's Web offer tremendous opportunities for exploration: ask a slightly different question, receive a correspondingly different answer. However, typical browser-based mechanisms for accessing the Web only enable users to pose one such question at a time, placing a heavy operational and cognitive burden on any user who wants to explore and compare alternatives. A subjunctive-interface approach may reduce this burden. Subjunctive interfaces support the setting up, viewing, and adjustment of multiple scenarios in parallel, allowing side-by-side instead of temporally separated viewing, and more efficient iteration through alternatives. A spreadsheet-inspired environment has been implemented where end users can program and use their own Web-access applications that include such multiscenario support. This chapter describes three modes of use of this environment-parallel retrieval, coordinated manipulation, and tentative composition-and explains how these may help to alleviate typical challenges in Web-based tasks. At the same time, one acknowledge that the increased scope for exploration made possible through this environment can itself present a form of cognitive burden to users, and plans were outlined to evaluate the impact of this effect.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | No code required : giving users tools to transform the web |
| Editors | Allen Cypher, Mira Dontcheva, Tessa Lau, Jeffrey Nichols |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Publisher | Morgan Kaufmann |
| Publication date | 2010 |
| Pages | 267-285 |
| Chapter | 14 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-0-12-381541-5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2010 |