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This was similar to my own reaction [0], that these concept videos don't look far enough forward. And, maybe because I'm just a born contrarian, as the world m
by joebadmo 15y ago
This was similar to my own reaction [0], that these concept videos don't look far enough forward.
And, maybe because I'm just a born contrarian, as the world moves toward touch-based direct-manipulation paradigms, I've personally been moving toward a more tactile, indirect paradigm. I recently bought a mechanical-switch keyboard, for example, that I'm growing more and more fond of every day. I've also started looking for a mouse that feels better in the hand, with a better weight, and better tactility to the button clicks.
The lack of tactility in touch screen keyboards has always been especially annoying to me. There's just so much information there between my fingers and the keys. I mean, there's an entire state -- the reassuring feeling of fingers resting on keys -- that's completely missing.
I accept the compromise in a phone, something that needs to fit in my pocket so I can carry it around all the time. But this makes me lament the rise of tablet computing. This is the sort of place that I refer to when I talk about tablets privileging consumption over production.
I don't think the problem is relegated to UI hardware, though. I think part of what's holding back a lot richer and more meaningful social interaction online is the fact that current social networking paradigms map better to data than to human psychology. It's the parallel problem of fitting the tool to the problem, but not the user.[1]
I'm not sure I agree with the direction he points to (if I understand him correctly). Making our digital tools act and feel more like real, physical objects is akin to 3D skeuomorphism. It's like making a device to drive nails that looks like a human fist, but bigger and harder. Better, I think, to figure out new ways to take advantage of the full potential of our senses and bodies to manipulate digital objects in ways that aren't possible with physical objects. And, please, Minority Report is not it.
[0]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3184216 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3184216
[1]: More here: http://blog.byjoemoon.com/post/11670022371/intimacy-is-performance http://blog.byjoemoon.com/post/11670022371/intimacy-is-perfo... and here: http://blog.byjoemoon.com/post/12261287667/in-defense-of-the-new-google-reader http://blog.byjoemoon.com/post/12261287667/in-defense-of-the...
- warfangle 15y agoI really dislike the lack of tactile feedback on touch devices, as well. There's technology out there to /provide/ tactile feedback on these devices - but it hasn't been rolled out to anything consumer yet, that I'm aware of. I can't wait for it: http://thenextweb.com/apple/2010/10/29/electrostatic-feedback-how-future-touchscreens-might-shock-us/ http://thenextweb.com/apple/2010/10/29/electrostatic-feedbac...
- andrewflnr 15y agoActually, lots of phones use vibration to give tactile feedback. Mine does it badly, but I'm pretty sure others do a better job of it.
- warfangle 15y agoVibration as a tactile feedback is extremely coarse. Electrostatic tactile feedback can simulate textures, button presses, and so forth - on your fingertip, instead of on your hand.
- bglusman 15y agoExcellent point on the skeuomorphism, though I'm not sure what the alternative is. He mainly focuses on all these things we don't have to learn to know how to use, but for any kind of sophisticated functionality I think some learning will be required and it's more about making it flexible and easy to learn, and utilizing additional channels for information in both directions.
- joebadmo 15y agoMe from another thread: I'm not sure that the benefit of making things intuitive or easy to learn is worth the cost of limiting the technology. Calculus is less intuitive, harder to learn than arithmetic, but it's much more powerful. Can't we reboot our interfaces, start with a large but consistent vocabulary, and remove limits instead of imposing more of them upon the altar of immediate and complete understanding? http://blog.byjoemoon.com/post/9325300749/a-different-kind-of-gui* http://blog.byjoemoon.com/post/9325300749/a-different-kind-o...
- anjc 15y ago"""these concept videos don't look far enough forward.""" If you look at any 'visions of the future' from the last 150 years, their visions retrospectively look silly and naive. From a forward looking perspective, though, would a true vision of the future make sense to a person seeing it? Maybe a clunky 'TV + rotary telephone' 60's vision of videophones would be more understandable/realistic/visionary than the sight of an iphone with a forward facing camera...? Incremental steps...there's no point in looking too far forward or you wont get anywhere.
- icandoitbetter 15y agoDid you even read the essay? Visions of the future are critical in shaping the focus of today's research. GUIs, laptops, etc. came almost entirely out of Alan Kay's mind. Visions of the future that just plain suck, such as Microsoft's, then become misguiding.
- Riverbed 15y agoThere's the new tactile overlay for touchscreen keyboards: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/740785012/touchfire-the-screen-top-keyboard-for-ipad/ http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/740785012/touchfire-the-...