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<title>Transparency (human–computer interaction)</title>

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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Transparency (human–computer interaction)</span></span>

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</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">For other uses, see <a href="Transparency_(disambiguation)" class="mw-redirect mw-disambig" title="Transparency (disambiguation)">Transparency (disambiguation)</a>.</div>

<p>Any change in a <a href="Computing" title="Computing">computing</a> system, such as a new feature or new component, is <b>transparent</b> if the system after change adheres to previous <a href="Interface_(computing)" title="Interface (computing)">external interface</a> as much as possible while changing its internal behaviour. The purpose is to shield from change all systems (or human users) on the other end of the interface. Confusingly, the term refers to overall <i>invisibility</i> of the component, it does not refer to <i>visibility of component's internals</i> (as in <a href="White_box_(software_engineering)" title="White box (software engineering)">white box</a> or <a href="Open_system_(computing)" title="Open system (computing)">open system</a>). The term <i>transparent</i> is widely used in computing marketing in substitution of the term <i>invisible</i>, since the term <i>invisible</i> has a bad <a href="Connotation" title="Connotation">connotation</a> (usually seen as something that the user can't see, and has no control over) while the term <i>transparent</i> has a good connotation (usually associated with not hiding anything). The vast majority of the times, the term <i>transparent</i> is used in a misleading way to refer to the actual invisibility of a computing process, which is also described by the term <i>opaque</i>, especially with regards to data structures. Because of this misleading and counter-intuitive definition, modern computer literature tends to prefer use of "<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/agnostic" class="extiw external" title="wikt:agnostic">agnostic</a>" over "transparent".

</p><p>The term is used particularly often with regard to an <a href="Abstraction_layer" title="Abstraction layer">abstraction layer</a> that is invisible either from its upper or lower neighbouring layer.

</p><p>Also temporarily used later around 1969 in IBM and Honeywell programming manuals the term referred to a certain <a href="Computer_programming" title="Computer programming">computer programming</a> technique. An application code was transparent when it was clear of the low-level detail (such as device-specific management) and contained only the logic solving a main problem. It was achieved through <a href="Encapsulation_(computer_science)" class="mw-redirect" title="Encapsulation (computer science)">encapsulation</a> – putting the code into modules that <a href="Information_hiding" title="Information hiding">hid</a> internal details, making them invisible for the main application.

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Examples">Examples</h2></div>

<p>For example, the <a href="Network_File_System_(protocol)" class="mw-redirect" title="Network File System (protocol)">Network File System</a> is transparent, because it introduces the access to files stored remotely on the network in a way uniform with previous local access to a <a href="File_system" title="File system">file system</a>, so the user might even not notice it while using the folder hierarchy. The early <a href="File_Transfer_Protocol" title="File Transfer Protocol">File Transfer Protocol</a> (FTP) is considerably less transparent, because it requires each user to learn how to access files through an <i>ftp</i> client.

</p><p>Similarly, some file systems allow transparent <a href="Data_compression" title="Data compression">compression</a> and decompression of data, enabling users to store more files on a medium without any special knowledge; some file systems encrypt files transparently. This approach does not require running a compression or encryption utility manually.

</p><p>In <a href="Software_engineering" title="Software engineering">software engineering</a>, it is also considered good practice to develop or use abstraction layers for <a href="Database" title="Database">database</a> access, so that the same application will work with different databases; here, the abstraction layer allows other parts of the program to access the database transparently (see <a href="Data_Access_Object" class="mw-redirect" title="Data Access Object">Data Access Object</a>, for example).

</p><p>In <a href="Object-oriented_programming" title="Object-oriented programming">object-oriented programming</a>, transparency is facilitated through the use of <a href="Protocol_(object-oriented_programming)" class="mw-redirect" title="Protocol (object-oriented programming)">interfaces</a> that hide actual implementations done with different underlying <a href="Class_(computer_science)" class="mw-redirect" title="Class (computer science)">classes</a>.

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Types_of_transparency_in_distributed_system">Types of transparency in distributed system</h2></div>

<p>Transparency means that any form of <a href="Distributed_system" class="mw-redirect" title="Distributed system">distributed system</a> should hide its distributed nature from its users, appearing and functioning as a normal centralized system.

</p><p>There are many types of transparency:

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<ul><li>Access transparency – Regardless of how resource access and representation has to be performed on each individual computing entity, the users of a distributed system should always access resources in a single, uniform way. Example: SQL Queries</li>

<li><a href="Location_transparency" title="Location transparency">Location transparency</a> – Users of a distributed system should not have to be aware of where a resource is physically located. Example: Pages in the Web</li>

<li>Migration transparency – Users should not be aware of whether a resource or computing entity possesses the ability to move to a different physical or logical location.</li>

<li>Relocation transparency – Should a resource move while in use, this should not be noticeable to the end user.</li>

<li><a href="Replication_(computer_science)" class="mw-redirect" title="Replication (computer science)">Replication</a> transparency – If a resource is replicated among several locations, it should appear to the user as a single resource.</li>

<li><a href="Concurrency_(computer_science)" title="Concurrency (computer science)">Concurrent</a> transparency – While multiple users may compete for and share a single resource, this should not be apparent to any of them.</li>

<li><a href="Failure_transparency" title="Failure transparency">Failure transparency</a> – Always try to hide any failure and recovery of computing entities and resources.</li>

<li><a href="Persistence_(computer_science)" title="Persistence (computer science)">Persistence</a> transparency – Whether a resource lies in volatile or permanent memory should make no difference to the user.</li>

<li><a href="Capability-based_security" title="Capability-based security">Security transparency</a> – Negotiation of cryptographically secure access of resources must require a minimum of user intervention, or users will circumvent the security in preference of productivity.</li></ul>

<p>Formal definitions of most of these concepts can be found in <a href="RM-ODP" title="RM-ODP">RM-ODP</a>, the Open Distributed Processing Reference Model (ISO 10746).

</p><p>The degree to which these properties can or should be achieved may vary widely. Not every system can or should hide everything from its users. For instance, due to the existence of a fixed and finite <a href="Speed_of_light" title="Speed of light">speed of light</a> there will always be more latency on accessing resources distant from the user. If one expects real-time interaction with the distributed system, this may be very noticeable.

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Further_reading">Further reading</h2></div>

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</style><cite id="CITEREFYueWangWang2007" class="citation book cs1">Yue, Weining; Wang, Heng; Wang, Guoping (2007). <span class="id-lock-subscription" title="Paid subscription required"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-73105-4_37">"Designing Transparent Interaction for Ubiquitous Computing: Theory and Application"</a></span>. In Jacko, Julie A. (ed.). <i>Human-Computer Interaction. Interaction Design and Usability</i>. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 4550. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. pp. <span class="nowrap">331–</span>339. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-540-73105-4_37">10.1007/978-3-540-73105-4_37</a>. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>978-3-540-73105-4</bdi>.</cite></li>

<li><cite id="CITEREFSchelenzSegalAdelioGal2024" class="citation journal cs1">Schelenz, Laura; Segal, Avi; Adelio, Oduma; Gal, Kobi (2024-03-20). <span class="id-lock-subscription" title="Paid subscription required"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3636508">"Transparency-Check: An Instrument for the Study and Design of Transparency in AI-based Personalization Systems"</a></span>. <i>ACM Journal on Responsible Computing</i>. <b>1</b> (1): 8:1–8:18. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1145%2F3636508">10.1145/3636508</a>.</cite></li></ul></div><div><div class="zim-footer">

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