Radical user interfaces for real-time control

This paper describes recent work which challenges the predominance of the WIMP (Windows-Icons-Menus-Pointers) computer interface for use in real-time situations. The results of the work have implications for the design of user-interfaces for real-time control tasks (of which musical performance and experimentation are clear examples). This paper describes the tests, the interfaces, and the results from a variety of test subjects over several weeks. It then draws conclusions about the appropriateness of commonly accepted interfaces for complex and creative tasks