3 ms·

I miss practical physical interfaces. Touchscreens are a big step back in terms of usability.

by biofox 2y ago

amelius 2y ago
Well, GP was feeling warm and fuzzy by watching those knobs on presumably a flat screen.
bilekas 2y ago
I think it's a mixed bag to be honest. Touchscreens on a phone are definitely an improvement, you can do far more than before with the dpad on phones. But I agree when it comes to things like in car controls.. those things should be subconscious and non distracting.
- amelius 2y ago
  The disadvantage of physical knobs is that they don't disappear if they go out of context. (Or at least I haven't seen that yet)
  - bilekas 2y ago
    This has made me think a lot today about possible options for that. Annoyingly so.. In a sense I guess it could be done, but I'm then struggling to find a way I could trust the switch to be removed correctly.. Is this just the analogue digital debate?
bloopernova 2y ago
If I were the crusading type, I'd be on a crusade against single-button interfaces. It's so annoying to have "single tap to pause, double tap to skip to next track" because the timing seems to mess up intermittently. Did I just pause the track or skip? Is the next track just starting too quietly for this environment, or did I pause? Touch-sensitive inputs, like those on the google pixel buds pro 2, are even worse. Any touch can have weird results as it might be detected as a swipe or a long-touch. Kudos to the Jabra earbuds I was gifted recently, they can remap the single/double/triple clicks, so a single click for me is now next track. And as I age, I get dry skin which sometimes doesn't even register as a touch. I'd love to see a range of accessible hardware that has actual buttons that clearly state what they do, and have visual+haptic+audio feedback which can be configured.
- piltdownman 2y ago
  Pulling up the hood on your capacitive material jacket over your headphones registers dozens of ghost inputs as well. It lead to me disabling the touch-controls completely on my XM4s.
- bookofjoe 2y ago
  "Push until something happens" is Apple's prime functionality when it comes to control switches/buttons. iPhone/iPad/Apple TV Remote etc. Terrible UI/UX.
dfxm12 2y ago
Touchscreens are a big step back in terms of usability. I disagree with this as a blanket statement. This often comes up in the context of cars, which, sure, I agree. It's imperative to have physical feedback and have the controls in a familiar place. I also think device makers are investing less in interface design. Just like you have have an intuitive interface with physical buttons or not, you can also have an intuitive interface with a touch screen. In this context, where the stakes are lower than driving a car and you don't need to identify each control by touch to use the thing safely, if you can get more screen real estate by eschewing some physical controls for touch screen controls, I think that would make the device more usable as a TV viewing device.

I miss practical physical interfaces. Touchscreens are a big step back in terms of usability.

by biofox 2y ago

I miss practical physical interfaces. Touchscreens are a big step back in terms of usability.

amelius 2y ago

Well, GP was feeling warm and fuzzy by watching those knobs on presumably a flat screen.

bilekas 2y ago

I think it's a mixed bag to be honest. Touchscreens on a phone are definitely an improvement, you can do far more than before with the dpad on phones. But I agree when it comes to things like in car controls.. those things should be subconscious and non distracting.

amelius 2y ago
The disadvantage of physical knobs is that they don't disappear if they go out of context. (Or at least I haven't seen that yet)
- bilekas 2y ago
  This has made me think a lot today about possible options for that. Annoyingly so.. In a sense I guess it could be done, but I'm then struggling to find a way I could trust the switch to be removed correctly.. Is this just the analogue digital debate?

bloopernova 2y ago

If I were the crusading type, I'd be on a crusade against single-button interfaces. It's so annoying to have "single tap to pause, double tap to skip to next track" because the timing seems to mess up intermittently. Did I just pause the track or skip? Is the next track just starting too quietly for this environment, or did I pause? Touch-sensitive inputs, like those on the google pixel buds pro 2, are even worse. Any touch can have weird results as it might be detected as a swipe or a long-touch. Kudos to the Jabra earbuds I was gifted recently, they can remap the single/double/triple clicks, so a single click for me is now next track. And as I age, I get dry skin which sometimes doesn't even register as a touch. I'd love to see a range of accessible hardware that has actual buttons that clearly state what they do, and have visual+haptic+audio feedback which can be configured.

piltdownman 2y ago
Pulling up the hood on your capacitive material jacket over your headphones registers dozens of ghost inputs as well. It lead to me disabling the touch-controls completely on my XM4s.
bookofjoe 2y ago
"Push until something happens" is Apple's prime functionality when it comes to control switches/buttons. iPhone/iPad/Apple TV Remote etc. Terrible UI/UX.

dfxm12 2y ago

Touchscreens are a big step back in terms of usability. I disagree with this as a blanket statement. This often comes up in the context of cars, which, sure, I agree. It's imperative to have physical feedback and have the controls in a familiar place. I also think device makers are investing less in interface design. Just like you have have an intuitive interface with physical buttons or not, you can also have an intuitive interface with a touch screen. In this context, where the stakes are lower than driving a car and you don't need to identify each control by touch to use the thing safely, if you can get more screen real estate by eschewing some physical controls for touch screen controls, I think that would make the device more usable as a TV viewing device.