6 ms·

Crazy that this guy criticizes the Minority Report interfaces and then makes the terrible claim that interfaces ought to make use of humans' ability to grip. No

Crazy that this guy criticizes the Minority Report interfaces and then makes the terrible claim that interfaces ought to make use of humans' ability to grip. Not all humans have strong grips, particularly the elderly. There's a reason newer buildings use lever handles over doorknobs. My hope would be that the interfaces of the future would be more accessible to the disabled, not less.

ksk 10y ago
Wow, I guess the article really struck a nerve with you huh? Taking advantage of major human ability != making it an exclusive requirement to use said interface. Also, suggestion != claim.
- chc 10y ago
  You sound a lot more het up about this than the parent comment. The parent just suggested that this article is ignoring some things that should be considered if you want to talk about designing interfaces for real people. It's important to design things that don't fail when confronted with edge cases.
  - ksk 10y ago
    I don't think calling something crazy is merely suggesting something. What edge cases? What design? What are you even talking about? A person merely said "Hey guys, have you thought of this". GP got on their case as if they were against the disabled or something.
mistercow 10y ago
It seems pretty obvious that accessibility is always going to require extra thought. Some people are paralyzed from the neck down, but we still have keyboards. In any case, why do you think that using gripping as a UI action implies that you'd need a strong grip to use it?
- maldusiecle 10y ago
  Sure, it's always going to require extra thought, but why create problems when you don't need to? There's this entire train of reasoning that seems to be that a rich interface is one that places as many demands as possible on the human body. That thinking will inevitably lead to problems of this type. If grip isn't necessary, why make it necessary? I could have made a number of objections of this type to the article, but this seems the most obvious and understandable one.
  - nitrogen 10y ago
    why create problems when you don't need to? I don't think it's fair to make non-disabled individuals use a less productive interface, just as it's not fair to prevent disabled individuals from using the interface of their choice.
    - CaptSpify 10y ago
      How is gripping more productive? I'm not disabled, but much prefer grippless handles because they are easier/simpler to use.
      - nitrogen 10y ago
        I was speaking in more general terms, but I'll provide some examples. I grip my mouse to use its side buttons to navigate forward/backward in a web browser. Human hands are generally good at holding things, and flat touchscreens/trackpads aren't very holdable. Power tools, steering wheels, gear shifts, volume knobs -- all examples of things that are gripped.
  - mistercow 10y ago
    > There's this entire train of reasoning that seems to be that a rich interface is one that places as many demands as possible on the human body I disagree completely. The line of reasoning is "what actions can we perform that have the highest bandwidth, and lowest cognitive load?" And various forms of manual manipulation, like gripping, are an excellent avenue of exploration when answering that question.
muad 10y ago
The recent trend for websites is to make them as unaccessible as possible. It is a real shame to see the internet become so much less useful for so many people.
crimsonalucard 10y ago
Well not all humans have fingers either. There's a lot of vets and amputees who have no arms or legs so all user interfaces should be eye tracking based. Honestly, common sense says the guy is talking about interfaces for the general population, not the disabled. If most people can grip then make interfaces that grip. Don't force everyone to read braille just because a few people are blind.
falcolas 10y ago
To be fair, waving your arms around, or hitting targets 10x smaller than the finger you're using to hit them is no more accessible than twisting a knob or moving a slider. No single interface will ever suit all potential users, so any accessible design has to keep this in mind.
glangdale 10y ago
Hmmn, I'm betting that a user interface that requires 'gripping' might possibly not require someone with the grip strength of a gorilla. And your self-serving invocation of the disabled fails to notice that most gestural or touchscreen interfaces are atrocious for the elderly or disabled, and have a tendency to misconstrue 'tremor' as intentional movement. Generally if you want to design for the disabled, you probably are designing for the disabled, rather than using them as fodder for an argument.
nisse72 10y ago
> There's a reason newer buildings use lever handles over doorknobs For the cats.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  Yeah, as a teenager I had to disassemble my handle and reinstall it vertically in order to make the cat stop jumping on it in the middle of the night and waking me up in the process... (I like cats. The problem then was that I had way too much stuff in various cabinets and the cat liked to make a grand tour through them, throwing a lot of stuff to the ground in the proces...)

ksk 10y ago

Wow, I guess the article really struck a nerve with you huh? Taking advantage of major human ability != making it an exclusive requirement to use said interface. Also, suggestion != claim.

chc 10y ago
You sound a lot more het up about this than the parent comment. The parent just suggested that this article is ignoring some things that should be considered if you want to talk about designing interfaces for real people. It's important to design things that don't fail when confronted with edge cases.
- ksk 10y ago
  I don't think calling something crazy is merely suggesting something. What edge cases? What design? What are you even talking about? A person merely said "Hey guys, have you thought of this". GP got on their case as if they were against the disabled or something.

mistercow 10y ago

It seems pretty obvious that accessibility is always going to require extra thought. Some people are paralyzed from the neck down, but we still have keyboards. In any case, why do you think that using gripping as a UI action implies that you'd need a strong grip to use it?

maldusiecle 10y ago
Sure, it's always going to require extra thought, but why create problems when you don't need to? There's this entire train of reasoning that seems to be that a rich interface is one that places as many demands as possible on the human body. That thinking will inevitably lead to problems of this type. If grip isn't necessary, why make it necessary? I could have made a number of objections of this type to the article, but this seems the most obvious and understandable one.
- nitrogen 10y ago
  why create problems when you don't need to? I don't think it's fair to make non-disabled individuals use a less productive interface, just as it's not fair to prevent disabled individuals from using the interface of their choice.
  - CaptSpify 10y ago
    How is gripping more productive? I'm not disabled, but much prefer grippless handles because they are easier/simpler to use.
    - nitrogen 10y ago
      I was speaking in more general terms, but I'll provide some examples. I grip my mouse to use its side buttons to navigate forward/backward in a web browser. Human hands are generally good at holding things, and flat touchscreens/trackpads aren't very holdable. Power tools, steering wheels, gear shifts, volume knobs -- all examples of things that are gripped.
- mistercow 10y ago
  > There's this entire train of reasoning that seems to be that a rich interface is one that places as many demands as possible on the human body I disagree completely. The line of reasoning is "what actions can we perform that have the highest bandwidth, and lowest cognitive load?" And various forms of manual manipulation, like gripping, are an excellent avenue of exploration when answering that question.

muad 10y ago

The recent trend for websites is to make them as unaccessible as possible. It is a real shame to see the internet become so much less useful for so many people.

crimsonalucard 10y ago

Well not all humans have fingers either. There's a lot of vets and amputees who have no arms or legs so all user interfaces should be eye tracking based. Honestly, common sense says the guy is talking about interfaces for the general population, not the disabled. If most people can grip then make interfaces that grip. Don't force everyone to read braille just because a few people are blind.

falcolas 10y ago

To be fair, waving your arms around, or hitting targets 10x smaller than the finger you're using to hit them is no more accessible than twisting a knob or moving a slider. No single interface will ever suit all potential users, so any accessible design has to keep this in mind.

glangdale 10y ago

Hmmn, I'm betting that a user interface that requires 'gripping' might possibly not require someone with the grip strength of a gorilla. And your self-serving invocation of the disabled fails to notice that most gestural or touchscreen interfaces are atrocious for the elderly or disabled, and have a tendency to misconstrue 'tremor' as intentional movement. Generally if you want to design for the disabled, you probably are designing for the disabled, rather than using them as fodder for an argument.

nisse72 10y ago

> There's a reason newer buildings use lever handles over doorknobs For the cats.

TeMPOraL 10y ago
Yeah, as a teenager I had to disassemble my handle and reinstall it vertically in order to make the cat stop jumping on it in the middle of the night and waking me up in the process... (I like cats. The problem then was that I had way too much stuff in various cabinets and the cat liked to make a grand tour through them, throwing a lot of stuff to the ground in the proces...)