CLIPBOARD/UNDO PROBLEMS AVOIDED BY NAMED GROUPS AND THEIR GENERALIZATION
Date
1991-06-01
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Abstract
Being able to undo any operation improves user interfaces, for various
reasons. It gives the user a greater sense of safety and encourages
active exploration of a system. Undo enables users to extract themselves
from error states that might otherwise have trapped them.
However, undo is only useful if both: the user knows they have made a
mistake, and that the mistake can in fact be undone. Clearly, a poorly
implemented undo may compromise the user.
This brief paper gives an example taken from the Macintosh user interface
where a 'correctly' implemented undo-last-action (the standard Macintosh
undo) fails the first condition given above because of the clipboard. We
infer lessons about the observability of user actions from this example,
and look forward to a safer, more generalised interface that takes the
concept of generic actions (like undo, cut, copy, paste) further.
This paper discusses the Macintosh user interface (Apple, 87); a discussion
of its strive for consistency can be found in Tognazzini (89).
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Computer Science