Patterns & Metaphors
Flexible interfaces
Template:
Flexible interfaces can provide a more appropriate boundary between the fixity of well-defined spaces and the variability of the contexts within which they are embedded.
Physical:
A building using canvas awnings or temporary roofing touches the elements more nearly than when constructed with hard conventional materials only. Canvas has a softness, a suppleness, which is in harmony with wind, light and sun.
Social:
A group permitting varying degrees of informal participation responds more naturally to its context than one based on formal membership only. Such flexible informality is in harmony with the shifting currents of opinion in the social environment.
Conceptual:
A conceptual framework able to incorporate informal methods of interacting with its environment is accepted as more realistic than one based on formal methods alone. Such flexibility is more responsive to the problems of representing complex, ill-defined phenomena.
Psychic:
A condition of awareness incorporating some subjective modes of understanding can provide a more appropriate interface with the psychic environment than one based on objective modes alone. An interface of such flexibility is more adapted to conditions in which the psychic boundary is ill-defined.
