Many computer applications allow users to make choices regarding several data values or processing options, seeking a combination that produces a good outcome. The demands of human attention strongly favour varying just one such parameter at a time, but this makes it hard to carry out a thorough exploration of multiple parameters. This paper reports work in progress towards an interface framework that would let users work with multiple dimensions of variation at the same time. When a user signals various tentative values for some parameter, application objects are copied to simulate the parallel existence of multiple versions of reality based on those different values. By the use of rendering techniques to blend the multiple states into a single working display, interaction can proceed using the same interface objects as normal. This could help in supporting parameter exploration without requiring users to learn complex exploration-specific abstractions that may seem remote from what they are trying to accomplish.
CR Categories and Subject Descriptors: H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: User Interfaces - Interaction Styles; I.3.6 [ Computer Graphics]: Methodology and Techniques - Interaction Techniques.
Additional Keywords: subjunctive interface, parameter exploration, semi-transparency, user interface, visualisation
HTML, gzipped PostScript versions of whole paper.