Protos

Since I am writing an Industrial PhD for the The Danfoss Group. I was glad to see that Steve Job’s thinks of interfaces as pure language:

In contrast, Mr. Jobs said that multitouch drastically simplified the process of controlling a computer.

There are no “verbs” in the iPhone interface, he said, alluding to the way a standard mouse or stylus system works. In those systems, users select an object, like a photo, and then separately select an action, or “verb,” to do something to it.

via: NYTimes

Although Jobs is speaking on the status of low cognitive strain in direct touch interfaces (interaction design). He is choosing a pure linguistic metaphor. Since I am taking the general approach, that you are indeed designing the communication situation when you are designing Collaborative software I was happy to see him state that.

Well the only flip side might be that he also states that languages without verbs are possible. Hey, could the verb not be the actual touch…? touch = noun + verb?

Anyway, HCI designed as communication – not only interaction.