4 ms·

Ink&Switch have 6 papers out on their site in the last 9 months. Each is a thorough review of an interaction style through a product they develop. Since they ar

Ink&Switch have 6 papers out on their site in the last 9 months. Each is a thorough review of an interaction style through a product they develop. Since they are an independent research lab their papers are much more approachable and fun than other, say, CHI or UIST papers I've read. These papers come off the back of 2+ years of research. Each of the individuals on the team have awesome backgrounds and Ink&Switch serves as a great starting point to do some backwards internet research if you want to see some wonderful design work. I look forward to anything else they will put out, I've skimmed each paper and thoroughly read 2. As to Capstone itself, it seems to me a wonderfully simple tablet interface. After rolling it around my head for a while I can't believe we ever ended up with grids of icons and widgets as the "desktop" of modern touch based devices. This nestable 2D canvas scheme (don't miss the jump links, no you aren't "trapped" by this scheme) feels intuitive and affords much power to the user that they can be fine to ignore or learn at their own pace. I find that reading these papers has influenced my desire for breadcrumbs on my tiling wm laptop setup in a way I can't currently figure out but I am making small progress. I've long been interested in OneNote. None of the other major note software systems have seemed as good. I still, however, use vim and paper. This seems like a tool that could blow OneNote out of the water. A user could build OneNote's UI in Capstone in what looks like a little bit of minor fiddling. If OneNote is a modern take on paper, Capstone is a modern take on screens.

angleofrepose 7y ago
By "screens" over "paper" I mean dynamism, transformation and computing power. Paper cannot execute, and paper simulation on computers takes no advantage of their digital environment. "Screens" however know where they live and open up capabilities to their users that reflect the device's actual power. I have shells on my desktop, I do not have shells on my OneNote. Capstone gives me a shell again. Why would I ever give it away, and use OneNote without the power and ability I expect everywhere else on my computer? I would like a better word to sum up this idea than "screen" vs "paper" so please drop me some recommendations.
- derefr 7y ago
  Paper = “spatial interface” in the original/most literal way the term was intended. The data is materialized into one point in space, and can only be accessed by going to that point in space. This was the original idea behind the early unification between saving files in a file-manager, and “iconifying” document-displaying windows: a file was just a hibernated window, and a window was a 1:1 representation of some particular file. Screens = “views” or “data bindings” in the SQL or MVC sense, or “projections” in relational algebra. There’s data somewhere, and then, separately, you have a view into that data: a distinct, live object through which you interact with the data, which can have a UX optimized for a given use-case, distinct from the “objective” UX suited to directly displaying the data. Capstone is sort of a spatial interface of view objects (rather than a spacial interface of literal documents, or a database-representation of view objects), which is novel.
  - angleofrepose 7y ago
    Dang, I like your perspective. Thanks for sharing. I want to explain digital displays in a name that exposes the idea of dynamic use. Of reading/writing/drawing while simultaneously affording computational ability, execution and simulation.
  - trevyn 7y ago
    This is starting to sound a bit like OpenDoc.
nextos 7y ago
I'm also interested in OneNote. I have a Remarkable tablet, which is nice. But all this Ink&Switch stuff looks terrific. So far, my best workflow is using the Remarkable to read books and papers. I write down notes with fountain pen and paper, and consolidate them on Emacs, in Org Mode using a Zettelkasten style. I would love to simplify this while keeping the essentials unchanged.
- noobly 7y ago
  If you want to go the other way and keep everything in emacs, you may be interested in something like org-noter/interleave, or simply pdftools. https://github.com/weirdNox/org-noter https://github.com/weirdNox/org-noter https://github.com/politza/pdf-tools https://github.com/politza/pdf-tools

angleofrepose 7y ago

By "screens" over "paper" I mean dynamism, transformation and computing power. Paper cannot execute, and paper simulation on computers takes no advantage of their digital environment. "Screens" however know where they live and open up capabilities to their users that reflect the device's actual power. I have shells on my desktop, I do not have shells on my OneNote. Capstone gives me a shell again. Why would I ever give it away, and use OneNote without the power and ability I expect everywhere else on my computer? I would like a better word to sum up this idea than "screen" vs "paper" so please drop me some recommendations.

derefr 7y ago
Paper = “spatial interface” in the original/most literal way the term was intended. The data is materialized into one point in space, and can only be accessed by going to that point in space. This was the original idea behind the early unification between saving files in a file-manager, and “iconifying” document-displaying windows: a file was just a hibernated window, and a window was a 1:1 representation of some particular file. Screens = “views” or “data bindings” in the SQL or MVC sense, or “projections” in relational algebra. There’s data somewhere, and then, separately, you have a view into that data: a distinct, live object through which you interact with the data, which can have a UX optimized for a given use-case, distinct from the “objective” UX suited to directly displaying the data. Capstone is sort of a spatial interface of view objects (rather than a spacial interface of literal documents, or a database-representation of view objects), which is novel.
- angleofrepose 7y ago
  Dang, I like your perspective. Thanks for sharing. I want to explain digital displays in a name that exposes the idea of dynamic use. Of reading/writing/drawing while simultaneously affording computational ability, execution and simulation.
- trevyn 7y ago
  This is starting to sound a bit like OpenDoc.

nextos 7y ago

I'm also interested in OneNote. I have a Remarkable tablet, which is nice. But all this Ink&Switch stuff looks terrific. So far, my best workflow is using the Remarkable to read books and papers. I write down notes with fountain pen and paper, and consolidate them on Emacs, in Org Mode using a Zettelkasten style. I would love to simplify this while keeping the essentials unchanged.

noobly 7y ago
If you want to go the other way and keep everything in emacs, you may be interested in something like org-noter/interleave, or simply pdftools. https://github.com/weirdNox/org-noter https://github.com/weirdNox/org-noter https://github.com/politza/pdf-tools https://github.com/politza/pdf-tools