Raskin's Take on Modality

Jef Raskin, in the third chapter of his book The Humane Interface, addresses issues of interface modality, monotony and beginner-expert dichotomy. His criticism of modality permeates throughout his discourse. He argues that modes are unnecessary evil that is responsible for user error, confusion, unnecessary restrictions or complexity in interfaces.

To understand Raskin’s arguments better it is important to identify his definition of modes. According to Raskin, the modality of an interface is present when the system’s state is not the focal point of the user’s attention and the interface will perform one of many possible operations based on the user’s gestures (sequence of human actions) while depending on the system’s current state. One of the examples through which Raskin demonstrates the negative aspects of modes are the interface user preference settings which cause a lot of frustration and allow users to make choices that are rarely optimal or can cause adverse effects in shared environments. Another example Rasking provides are function keys on many keyboards, which can cause confusions if the functions assigned to them can change.

Some of the solutions to relieving the confusion and frustration caused by modes are to try to eliminate modality of an interface or equipment. Raskin also suggests that removing modes after single use is another solution, as in the case of a tracer cursor that would revert to its natural/original state after a single use. This might seem like a viable solution, but can be a cause of frustration as well. For example, if an action to be performed in an alternate mode requires executing several sub-actions in that mode to complete a given task, and the given tool (e.g. cursor) reverts to its original mode after executing each sub-action, the user may get frustrated by the fact that he/she has to change the tool’s mode back from the original to the one needed to complete the task.

Another solution that Raskin argues can help deal with modality issues is the physical design of interfaces, instruments or appliances. He indicates that fewer buttons are not always better. On the contrary, he implies fewer controls can cause more confusion and require much more effort on the user’s part to carry out desired operations successfully. One of the examples Raskin presented was a more modern car radio which was more difficult to operate and required users to switch attention from what’s going on the road to operating the radio than another model offering multiple controls (especially radio station pre-sets), which required much less effort to operate. However, current car radio designs and controls placements deal with these problems quite successfully. The control over volume, programmed radio stations is accessible at the proximity of the steering wheel and can be easily exerted using as little as two or three buttons (volume control button pressed up or down, pre-set station control button, and the bandwidth and mode such as radio, cd player, dvd player, control button). Such design also takes away the distraction from the driver who doesn’t have to take his/her eyes off the road while changing stations or volume. Thus, fewer can be a successful design.