The term application posture characterizes the nature of a
software application
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
's
interaction
Interaction is action that occurs between two or more objects, with broad use in philosophy and the sciences. It may refer to:
Science
* Interaction hypothesis, a theory of second language acquisition
* Interaction (statistics)
* Interaction ...
with its user.
The term was coined by
Alan Cooper
Alan Cooper (born June 3, 1952) is an American software designer and programmer. Widely recognized as the "Father of Visual Basic", Cooper is also known for his books ''About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design'' and ''The Inmates Are R ...
, who characterized four 'postures' for applications: sovereign, transient, daemonic and parasitic.
* A sovereign application is a program that monopolizes the user's
attention
Attention is the behavioral and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information, whether considered subjective or objective, while ignoring other perceivable information. William James (1890) wrote that "Att ...
for long periods of time.
* Cooper defined transient applications thus: 'A transient posture program comes and goes, presenting a single, high-relief function with a tightly restricted set of accompanying controls. The program is called when needed, it appears and performs its job, then it quickly leaves, letting the user continue her more normal activity, usually a sovereign application.'
* Daemonic applications are background processes that require no direct user interaction.
* Parasitic or Auxiliary applications are similar to transient applications in providing a limited, focused set of functionality and occupy a small space, but they are shown persistently and can be used for a long period of time.
See also
*
Desk accessory A desk accessory (DA) in computing is a small transient or auxiliary application that can be run concurrently in a desktop environment with any other application on the system. Early examples, such as Sidekick and Macintosh desk accessories, used s ...
*
Helper application
Bibliography
* ''About Face'' by Cooper, Alan, Reimann, Robert & Cronin, David , 2007
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References
{{reflist
External links
* https://web.archive.org/web/20090303083150/http://www.littlespringsdesign.com/blog/blog/2007/09/07/application-posture/
Computing terminology
User interface techniques