Choice and Comparaison Where the User Wants Them: Subjunctive Interfaces for Computer-supported Exploration

There are many kinds of computer system that are intended to support users in performing an exploration among a range of possible results. However, such tools often allow only narrow progress through the result space, forcing users to trade off the breadth of search they would like to pursue against the time and effort required. The aim of the ‘subjunctive interface’ concept is to make broader searches more manageable, by letting users propose multiple alternative values for each parameter where normally only a single value can be supplied, and by supporting the viewing and comparison of the various resulting outcomes. This paper clarifies the motivation and principles underlying the subjunctive interface concept, describes implementation work that illustrates the approach, and outlines directions for further pursuit of this research.