Interaction Design between user and the operating system - Part 1

Designing any kind of interaction between two entities is always an imperfect science. It gets easier if the two entities are predictable systems. If we set out to define the design interaction between two highly predictable systems then it will not take very long to do so. The complexity increases with the increase in the unpredictably of entities. This can be express in following equation:

Design Complexity ∞ 1/Predictability of entities

As we get more and more predictable entities, we get better framework to define design interactions.

In light of aforementioned theory, it is obvious to assume that designing interaction between user and operating system will be highly difficult feat. Why is that? The answer is pretty simple. Unpredictability of the user. There is a limit to how unpredictable the operating system can be but there is no limit to user unpredictability. This proves the very first statement i.e "Designing any kind of interaction between two entities is always an imperfect science".

So what are our options?

This blog and subsequent parts of this blog will try to address options, design patterns and thoughts that will help us create a better interaction design between a user and operating system.

User action dependability
Most of the operating systems that I know of are reaction in nature when it comes to user interaction. They react to each user action interdependently. For example, user opens window, closes a window, deletes a file, creates a file, etc. These all are independent actions. This is fine to some extent. We as users are used to this design of interaction. In this case the operating system is fulfilling the role of server of user actions. This is one way to look at the interaction. This works for most of us. Why this works is that we have developed a mindset that is accustomed to this pattern.

There is another way to look at it. The other way is where the operating system understands each action and tries to understand what user is thinking and trying to achieve. With each action the operating system adapts and defines the interaction framework. The operating system also adds its smartness along the way.

To better understand this let us take an example. I am writing this blog in some software. At the same time my mail client application is open. The mail client application is usually kept open all day. I keep receiving emails and the mail client keep notifying me as emails arrive. During writing this blog, I click the close button on my mail client. The mail client closes. Why the operating system closed it? Because the operating system is servicing my action. The operating system did not process the correct intention of my action. The operating system just fulfilled my action. What if the operating system does not closes the mail application right away. Instead it just minimizes it or notifies me that this is middle of the day and am I sure to close this application. Think about this for a minute. What we are looking at? Are we looking at highly adaptive and intelligent operating system? Yes, from objectively thinking it probably is. But my point here is not to have highly intelligent operating system. My point here is that operating system defines interaction framework based on some logic.