Surely, teachers of mathematics know just as little about the complex mental processing of interface cues. Trained, after all, in mathematics, interface design may seem arcane, and exploring the subject may seem too demanding. Indeed, a quick look in the library finds that the literature on human-computer interactions is quite vast. The reason for this is that the subject has a long history. The proper role of machinery in society was debated by philosophers, psychologists, educators, and artists long before the advent of the modern computer.
Early sources consider the very ideas of work, learning, knowledge, and visual understanding.
Discussions of the capabilities and limitations of computing go back as far as the 1930s. Even sources on the strictly modern computer interface can be traced back as far as the pioneering work that was carried out at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s. In recent years, the subject has been studied with many different motivations from many different points of view. The designer of computer-based instructional materials, wishing to focus on the pedagogy of their subject, needs a distillation of this information. Whatever common principles have emerged from controlled studies and various histories of effective use need to be collected into a usable pocket guide.