Polite computing

Abstract

This paper presents politeness as a key social requirement for computer human interaction (CHI). Politeness is defined, in information terms, as offering the locus of control of a social interaction to another party. Software that creates pop-up windows is not illegal, but is impolite, as it preempts user choice. It is proposed that impolite software drives users away, while polite software attracts them. Specifying politeness suggests four requirements: (1) Respect user choice (2) Disclose yourself (3) Offer useful choices (4) Remember past choices. Software that ignores these rules may fail not by logic error but by social error. “Mr. Clippy” is an example of software that users often disable because it is impolite. Operating systems could support application politeness by providing an application source registry and a general meta-choice console. A future is envisaged where software politeness is a critical software success requirement.