Constraints

Are constraints simply a necessary evil, or do they perform some positive function for users?

In idle fantasies about interactive systems people tend to imagine magical spaces where they can and do whatever they wish- like gods. Even if such a system were technically feasible the experience of using it might more like an existential nightmare than a dream of freedom. When a person is asked to be creative with no direction or constraints whatever, the result is often a sense of powerlessness or even complete paralysis of the imagination. Constraints provide the security net that enables people to take imaginative leaps....

----Interface as mimesis (Brenda K Laurel) [User Centered System Design]

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