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Years ago I made an attempt at a UI that wouldn't even require repositioning the phone in your hand: the buttons are literally under your thumb (if you forgive

by mojuba 7y ago

Years ago I made an attempt at a UI that wouldn't even require repositioning the phone in your hand: the buttons are literally under your thumb (if you forgive my shameless self-plug): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/futurecalc-futuristic-calculator/id1078127612 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/futurecalc-futuristic-calculat...

krsdcbl 7y ago
I remember this being a thing for sometime, years ago as you said - always found this approach very interesting and resulting in beautiful and diverse UIs. Sadly this trend seems to have faded away together with the rejection of skeumorphism and the advent of "design systems" (eg component lib based design)
- Fnoord 7y ago
  Back then the UIs and OSes were less set in stone. Nowadays we have two mobile UIs: iOS and Android (while there's also the gesture-based SailfishOS [1]). Just like everyone's a Qwerty user, which isn't necessarily the most efficient, even on mobile (example [2]). Problem is, you can only deviate so much from the defaults/standards. [1] https://sailfishos.org/design/gestures/ https://sailfishos.org/design/gestures/ [2] https://keybee.it/ https://keybee.it/
  - G4E 7y ago
    No, not everyone is a QWERTY user. French are AZERTY[1], we are 70 millions. There is a really small fraction of the population able to type on QWERTY. Germans are QWERTZ, they are 86 millions. Scandinavians have their own QWERTY variation, where a lot of symbols are mapped differently. There is a whole world outside there, you know ? :) I agree with you on the point that those are not the most efficient layout nowadays though. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AZERTY https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AZERTY
    - mojuba 7y ago
      Even the UK keyboard can drive you nuts if you are an engineer and you are used to the US one. The Enter key has a different shape, the backtick and the backslash are placed differently.
dillonmckay 7y ago
I really like that UI. Well done!
Fnoord 7y ago
Interestingly, such UI (well done, but seen such before) challenges the whole size of the smartphone as we know it, akin to a gaming keypad [1] challenging a keyboard. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaming_keypad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaming_keypad
- BigJ1211 7y ago
  If you want to take it a step further you can look into something such as Azeron[1], I've ordered one myself. But prooduction time is quite long (3 months). So I haven't experienced it myself, ordered it because of RSI issues. [1] https://azeron.eu https://azeron.eu
  - Fnoord 7y ago
    Regarding RSI, have you tried a vertical mouse?
MalcolmPF 7y ago
Ohh nice. Very LCARS-y!
- mojuba 7y ago
  Thanks! Wasn't intentional but probably inspired by LCARS somehow subconsciously ;)

by mojuba 7y ago

krsdcbl 7y ago

I remember this being a thing for sometime, years ago as you said - always found this approach very interesting and resulting in beautiful and diverse UIs. Sadly this trend seems to have faded away together with the rejection of skeumorphism and the advent of "design systems" (eg component lib based design)

Fnoord 7y ago
Back then the UIs and OSes were less set in stone. Nowadays we have two mobile UIs: iOS and Android (while there's also the gesture-based SailfishOS [1]). Just like everyone's a Qwerty user, which isn't necessarily the most efficient, even on mobile (example [2]). Problem is, you can only deviate so much from the defaults/standards. [1] https://sailfishos.org/design/gestures/ https://sailfishos.org/design/gestures/ [2] https://keybee.it/ https://keybee.it/
- G4E 7y ago
  No, not everyone is a QWERTY user. French are AZERTY[1], we are 70 millions. There is a really small fraction of the population able to type on QWERTY. Germans are QWERTZ, they are 86 millions. Scandinavians have their own QWERTY variation, where a lot of symbols are mapped differently. There is a whole world outside there, you know ? :) I agree with you on the point that those are not the most efficient layout nowadays though. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AZERTY https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AZERTY
  - mojuba 7y ago
    Even the UK keyboard can drive you nuts if you are an engineer and you are used to the US one. The Enter key has a different shape, the backtick and the backslash are placed differently.

dillonmckay 7y ago

I really like that UI. Well done!

Fnoord 7y ago

Interestingly, such UI (well done, but seen such before) challenges the whole size of the smartphone as we know it, akin to a gaming keypad [1] challenging a keyboard. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaming_keypad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaming_keypad

BigJ1211 7y ago
If you want to take it a step further you can look into something such as Azeron[1], I've ordered one myself. But prooduction time is quite long (3 months). So I haven't experienced it myself, ordered it because of RSI issues. [1] https://azeron.eu https://azeron.eu
- Fnoord 7y ago
  Regarding RSI, have you tried a vertical mouse?

MalcolmPF 7y ago

Ohh nice. Very LCARS-y!

mojuba 7y ago
Thanks! Wasn't intentional but probably inspired by LCARS somehow subconsciously ;)