Feedback in human-computer interaction - characteristics and recommendations

Abstract

The need for feedback is widely accepted, and the role of feedback in making things easier for the end-user is also no longer disputed. However, the nature of the feedback and the manner of this provision is by no means agreed upon. Feedback is traditionally considered to be a communication of immediate system state to the end-user. This paper will argue the need for extending the concept to encompass the provision of archival feedback - information about past activity. We also argue the need for graphical, rather than textual, feedback and provide a list of desirable feedback features which should be provided by an application. the paper ends off by examining the means for this provision.