Reaction: A Review of Overview+Detail, Zooming, and Focus+Context Interfaces

The authors state that one of the motives behind the paper is the inclusion of advanced interface developing techniques in desktops. I strongly consider this to be an important one because not all interfaces developed by developers have favorable positive results. Thus research helps them understand this difference of perception and ultimately leads in developing better products.

The authors base their ideas on the "mantras" that are described in the paper "The Eyes Have It - A Task by Data Type Taxonomy for Information Visualizations". I feel that by doing so, the authors have presented a step by step gathering of ideas which translate into clear understanding from the readers point of view. Examples of each interface are clearly presented with graphical images.

The paper is an enjoyable read because it provides guidelines which are to be followed when dealing with interfaces and it also describes the situations which might arise when we try to combine multiple views. Some of the views presented in the paper have limited applications or can be easily substituted with others which can serve a basis for viewing multiple representations. I am impressed about the facts of the human eye and its viewing capability . I feel the authors correctly conveyed the fact that adding interfaces which serve limited purposes can only increase the complexity while being of little purpose. Apart from the MAC OSX docking example that is given, we can recollect several instances where introducing a new interface did prove to be of much use.

I also liked the way "Summary" was described by the author. It provides a complete gist of the entire paper and with the use of sub-headings in bold, it mentions key notes to be taken away from the paper.