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I'm typing this message on a mechanical keyboard placed on top of my MacBook Air's built-in keyboard because the MBA's flat keys are impossible to clean. I'm n

I'm typing this message on a mechanical keyboard placed on top of my MacBook Air's built-in keyboard because the MBA's flat keys are impossible to clean. I'm not happy that everything is flat. I'm also typing it in the dark and the keyboard isn't backlit. I can do this because my fingers can feel where the edges of the keys are. I still can't touchtype on touchscreen keyboards (ironically), and I've tried many times to learn. There was a lot of buzz (pun not intended, again) about haptics a few years ago, but it seems like it's stagnated before reaching the point where you can use a touch interface without looking at it. Consumer electronics went flat because flat is 'good enough', but anywhere where 'good enough' isn't, buttons are still there. Companies like Elgato, Loupedeck and Korg sell boxes of knobs, sliders and buttons for basically every creative technical profession because there's a real benefit to having a dedicated control for everything in a consistent location that you can feel without looking.

eternityforest 4y ago
I'd say those are more a matter of specialty use than strictly better. I can type faster on my phone than on a keyboard, and if I use a real separate keyboard and monitor, I'm significantly slowed down by the extra distance to glance back and forth between screen and keyboard. I tried to learn touch typing for about a week, got to 0.7 letters per second @95% or so accuracy with home row only exercises, then got bored and forgot the whole thing. If you have good muscle memory, or the task is something where you want to leave a finger on a control and look away(Like a game controller), it's great. If gloves or wet hands are involved, or you need one button activation but don't want to accidentally turn it on, touch has issues. For something you look at while using, or anything used in a typical consumer environment where dust and crumbs and spills can happen, or anything that has too many one off tasks and not enough frequent stuff for anyone to actually learn a dedicated button screens are amazing. Especially when size is an issue, one screen replaces a whole wall of controls, and screens required no force, so you can use things one handed without pushing them around while trying to push the buttons, on something like a timer. Creative professionals tend to have good muscle memory and a sense of 3D space, and are more comfortable moving objects in reality than looking at a screen. They do specific things that require multitasking in realtime, and have the talent to do so, and they have things they do so often it's worth buying and learning a dedicated box. Power tools often only have 2 frequently used controls, or 1, just trigger and direction, and are used all day, so it makes sense there. Kitchen stoves need fast adjustment but no exact precision, unless you're a pro chef you crank it up to boil stuff, then turn it down till it seems about right, pretty good fit for analog. But for most of my interactions with tech screens are great. They tightly couple input and output and make internal state immediately obvious. They're one of the defining aspects of most "tech products" as opposed to just a tool that was made with tech.

eternityforest 4y ago

I'd say those are more a matter of specialty use than strictly better. I can type faster on my phone than on a keyboard, and if I use a real separate keyboard and monitor, I'm significantly slowed down by the extra distance to glance back and forth between screen and keyboard. I tried to learn touch typing for about a week, got to 0.7 letters per second @95% or so accuracy with home row only exercises, then got bored and forgot the whole thing. If you have good muscle memory, or the task is something where you want to leave a finger on a control and look away(Like a game controller), it's great. If gloves or wet hands are involved, or you need one button activation but don't want to accidentally turn it on, touch has issues. For something you look at while using, or anything used in a typical consumer environment where dust and crumbs and spills can happen, or anything that has too many one off tasks and not enough frequent stuff for anyone to actually learn a dedicated button screens are amazing. Especially when size is an issue, one screen replaces a whole wall of controls, and screens required no force, so you can use things one handed without pushing them around while trying to push the buttons, on something like a timer. Creative professionals tend to have good muscle memory and a sense of 3D space, and are more comfortable moving objects in reality than looking at a screen. They do specific things that require multitasking in realtime, and have the talent to do so, and they have things they do so often it's worth buying and learning a dedicated box. Power tools often only have 2 frequently used controls, or 1, just trigger and direction, and are used all day, so it makes sense there. Kitchen stoves need fast adjustment but no exact precision, unless you're a pro chef you crank it up to boil stuff, then turn it down till it seems about right, pretty good fit for analog. But for most of my interactions with tech screens are great. They tightly couple input and output and make internal state immediately obvious. They're one of the defining aspects of most "tech products" as opposed to just a tool that was made with tech.