A Cognition-Historical Perspective in Human Computer Interaction- Three Examples in Authoring

In this essay, I investigate three kinds of authoring tools: word pro-cessors, web editors, and programming languages. In all three, historical developments in human-computer interaction have led to an emphasis on graphical presentation. These developments have caused changes in the writing process. The writing process is highly reflective, consisting of planning, com-posing, and revising. I argue that current user interfaces are experiential, and put an emphasis on the reader rather than the writer. I suggest that a type of interface that focuses on document structure rather than pre-sentation is more useful for the writer. In programming, this means using languages that facilitate moving between layers of abstraction.