4 ms·

I think current interfaces would fall over in a truly immersive environment; I find it too damn hard to keep track of all my windows and modals and popups and s

by jfb 13y ago

I think current interfaces would fall over in a truly immersive environment; I find it too damn hard to keep track of all my windows and modals and popups and shit with 2x27"; if I was offered tomorrow a 65", 400ppi screen, I'd have a hard time setting up my work environment to match. Given that I'm not terribly happy about vast screen resolution with existing software, I'd much prefer smaller, higher-PQ, super-high density screens while we as an industry figure out how to make immersive displays usable. Just MHO, of course.

bhauer 13y ago
You are right, of course. Current interfaces are not well suited to high-DPI large form-factor displays. But if we wait for interfaces to happen first, I worry the wait will be prolonged. Plus, if you gave me a 65" 400 DPI screen today, I would drop everything and immediately put it to use. I would set it up on a drafting-style standing desk and would enjoy extremely high-clarity text throughout my desktop user interface. I would hand-craft the desk myself and I'd shower you with thanks and praise. The point being, I want to be an early adopter and hopefully there would be enough of us for the UI designers to eventually target our demographic. Right now, so much UI R&D is on small form-factor that it's a little heart-breaking to someone like myself who spends 8 hours a day working at a desktop. Science-fiction movies routinely taunt us with immersive desktop computing and we're just barely moving the needle in that direction.
- jfb 13y ago
  I'd drop everything for a 65" 400ppi display, of course, but I'd take a 24" 400ppi over a 65" 200ppi without even thinking about it.
  - bhauer 13y ago
    I'll take both, several of each!
  - jules 13y ago
    Why? Just position the 65" one twice as far away and you have effectively the same pixel density with a bigger effective viewing area and less eye strain.
    - jfb 13y ago
      My office is small? Good point, though.
- rsync 13y ago
  "Current interfaces are not well suited to high-DPI large form-factor displays." Actually, a simple, tiling window manager (ion3, ratpoison, OSX with SizeUP) does just fine. I am running triple u3011 monitors with OSX Leopard, running Sizeup, and its basically like having 10 small, no-bezel displays in front of me (left and right screens are split into a quad, and middle screen is split down the middle). Lose the gratuitous candy-UI elements and it all works just fine :)
  - bhauer 13y ago
    I agree with you as well, which is why elsewhere I said I would definitely take a large high-DPI display and make it work. Even with no change whatsoever to our current operating systems, my enjoyment of my desktop computer would increase tremendously if I could scrap my multi-monitor setup, replacing it with one high-DPI very large monitor. But I think the point still stands that interfaces could be improved (and probably quite a bit) to take advantage of this kind of hardware. As dragonwriter said elsewhere in this thread, it may start as just simple things such as providing more flexibility on top of existing quality of life improvements that have been added to window managers based on the recognition that these monitors are larger and you can view more information at once. I would like to see such a monitor coupled with gesture input (along with mouse). I'd love to be able to do gestures to pick up a stack of windows and arrange them in a quick hand motion, for example.

by jfb 13y ago

bhauer 13y ago

You are right, of course. Current interfaces are not well suited to high-DPI large form-factor displays. But if we wait for interfaces to happen first, I worry the wait will be prolonged. Plus, if you gave me a 65" 400 DPI screen today, I would drop everything and immediately put it to use. I would set it up on a drafting-style standing desk and would enjoy extremely high-clarity text throughout my desktop user interface. I would hand-craft the desk myself and I'd shower you with thanks and praise. The point being, I want to be an early adopter and hopefully there would be enough of us for the UI designers to eventually target our demographic. Right now, so much UI R&D is on small form-factor that it's a little heart-breaking to someone like myself who spends 8 hours a day working at a desktop. Science-fiction movies routinely taunt us with immersive desktop computing and we're just barely moving the needle in that direction.

jfb 13y ago
I'd drop everything for a 65" 400ppi display, of course, but I'd take a 24" 400ppi over a 65" 200ppi without even thinking about it.
- bhauer 13y ago
  I'll take both, several of each!
- jules 13y ago
  Why? Just position the 65" one twice as far away and you have effectively the same pixel density with a bigger effective viewing area and less eye strain.
  - jfb 13y ago
    My office is small? Good point, though.
rsync 13y ago
"Current interfaces are not well suited to high-DPI large form-factor displays." Actually, a simple, tiling window manager (ion3, ratpoison, OSX with SizeUP) does just fine. I am running triple u3011 monitors with OSX Leopard, running Sizeup, and its basically like having 10 small, no-bezel displays in front of me (left and right screens are split into a quad, and middle screen is split down the middle). Lose the gratuitous candy-UI elements and it all works just fine :)
- bhauer 13y ago
  I agree with you as well, which is why elsewhere I said I would definitely take a large high-DPI display and make it work. Even with no change whatsoever to our current operating systems, my enjoyment of my desktop computer would increase tremendously if I could scrap my multi-monitor setup, replacing it with one high-DPI very large monitor. But I think the point still stands that interfaces could be improved (and probably quite a bit) to take advantage of this kind of hardware. As dragonwriter said elsewhere in this thread, it may start as just simple things such as providing more flexibility on top of existing quality of life improvements that have been added to window managers based on the recognition that these monitors are larger and you can view more information at once. I would like to see such a monitor coupled with gesture input (along with mouse). I'd love to be able to do gestures to pick up a stack of windows and arrange them in a quick hand motion, for example.