6 ms·

Talk about multi-touch reminds me of a friend's perennial complaint, "The future of interfaces seems designed to screw me over." He has a congenital deformity

Talk about multi-touch reminds me of a friend's perennial complaint, "The future of interfaces seems designed to screw me over." He has a congenital deformity of the arms, but he can type (and is one of those clacky-IBM keyboard fetishists). With his feet, he can use mice and controllers. But multi-touch systems are beyond his ability - while he can pivot and shift to type remarkably quickly, he can't get more than one hand on something at the same time. Worse, each hand is effectively only one digit for him. And then, there are the folks who don't even have his degree of dexterity. I can't help thinking that it might be a good thing for general interface designers to consider the implications of disabilities for users of these designs, instead of shrugging that off onto providers of interfaces specifically for the disabled.

NathanKP 17y ago
That is a really good point. The software of any future interface will have to include support for older devices and techniques. But this may perhaps be a good thing because it would motivate the specific design of devices that will be more efficient for the disabled simply because it will no longer be possible for them to use the multi-touch interface.
gecko 17y ago
Without disagreeing, I also don't think it makes sense to discount potentially massive improvements in user interfaces merely because a portion of the population cannot use them.
- joe_the_user 17y ago
  No, but his problem actually points to this being a problem for anyone. It becomes a problem when the machine requires all of my dexterity just to accomplish a given task. I dislike all Apple products specifically because they require mouse operations to accomplish things where Linux and MS interfaces tend to have keyboard shortcuts.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - andreyf 17y ago
    In my experience, OSX has much better thought-out keyboard shortcuts than Windows does. A simple example: you'd like to force-kill the focused application. In OSX, you type command-option-esc (one hand), return, return (other hand). I don't know what it is in Vita, but in XP, it would require quite a bit of mousework.
    - trebor 17y ago
      Since XP, when an application froze the window itself would render in spite of the frozen/omitted contents. So when the titlebar got an ending "(not responding)" tag it is easily closed with one click of the close button, then another of "end now" as confirmation. And there's always alt-f4.
      - deleted 17y ago
        [deleted]
    - alexitosrv 17y ago
      I can think in several counter examples: In mac os x, - how to show the desktop with a keyboard shortcut ? - how to maximize/minimize/restore a window with a keyboard shortcut (on windows you can press Alt+spacebar, and then x/n/r) ? - how to efficiently copy/move files in finder with a keyboard shortcut ? - how is better thought the fact that when you are in finder and then you press enter, you are going to rename a file? because in order to open/execute on a file you must press command+O... And finally, the operation you asked can be performed on windows by pressing ctrl+shift+esc, and if you are in the process tab, spelling the first letters of the procname, then press delete and confirm.
      - absconditus 17y ago
        "In mac os x, - how to show the desktop with a keyboard shortcut ?" F11 "- how to maximize/minimize/restore a window with a keyboard shortcut (on windows you can press Alt+spacebar, and then x/n/r) ?" There is no such thing as maximize in OS X. Minimize is command + m. I'm not sure how to restore with the keyboard. "- how to efficiently copy/move files in finder with a keyboard shortcut ?" Command + c is copy and command + v is paste. Command + x is cut, but there are rules governing when one can cut that I don't understand.
- Semiapies 17y ago
  I'd be against that; on the other hand, I don't buy that trying to make an improvement for more people than just the fully-dexterous and ten-fingered means some massive sacrifice. For that matter, I'm dubious that an interface that needs ten fingers to handle shifting between applications constitutes any massive improvement for anyone.
  - DanielStraight 17y ago
    Right. I use ten fingers to type. Sometimes I don't even use all ten. If I feel like being lazy, I'll type with one hand. Sometimes I scroll my trackball with a single finger while taking a drink of coffee. I don't want all ten of my fingers on an interface at all times.
raintrees 17y ago
Have dictation systems (like Dragon) gotten any better at switching between dictation mode and command mode?

NathanKP 17y ago

That is a really good point. The software of any future interface will have to include support for older devices and techniques. But this may perhaps be a good thing because it would motivate the specific design of devices that will be more efficient for the disabled simply because it will no longer be possible for them to use the multi-touch interface.

gecko 17y ago

Without disagreeing, I also don't think it makes sense to discount potentially massive improvements in user interfaces merely because a portion of the population cannot use them.

joe_the_user 17y ago
No, but his problem actually points to this being a problem for anyone. It becomes a problem when the machine requires all of my dexterity just to accomplish a given task. I dislike all Apple products specifically because they require mouse operations to accomplish things where Linux and MS interfaces tend to have keyboard shortcuts.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- andreyf 17y ago
  In my experience, OSX has much better thought-out keyboard shortcuts than Windows does. A simple example: you'd like to force-kill the focused application. In OSX, you type command-option-esc (one hand), return, return (other hand). I don't know what it is in Vita, but in XP, it would require quite a bit of mousework.
  - trebor 17y ago
    Since XP, when an application froze the window itself would render in spite of the frozen/omitted contents. So when the titlebar got an ending "(not responding)" tag it is easily closed with one click of the close button, then another of "end now" as confirmation. And there's always alt-f4.
    - deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
  - alexitosrv 17y ago
    I can think in several counter examples: In mac os x, - how to show the desktop with a keyboard shortcut ? - how to maximize/minimize/restore a window with a keyboard shortcut (on windows you can press Alt+spacebar, and then x/n/r) ? - how to efficiently copy/move files in finder with a keyboard shortcut ? - how is better thought the fact that when you are in finder and then you press enter, you are going to rename a file? because in order to open/execute on a file you must press command+O... And finally, the operation you asked can be performed on windows by pressing ctrl+shift+esc, and if you are in the process tab, spelling the first letters of the procname, then press delete and confirm.
    - absconditus 17y ago
      "In mac os x, - how to show the desktop with a keyboard shortcut ?" F11 "- how to maximize/minimize/restore a window with a keyboard shortcut (on windows you can press Alt+spacebar, and then x/n/r) ?" There is no such thing as maximize in OS X. Minimize is command + m. I'm not sure how to restore with the keyboard. "- how to efficiently copy/move files in finder with a keyboard shortcut ?" Command + c is copy and command + v is paste. Command + x is cut, but there are rules governing when one can cut that I don't understand.
Semiapies 17y ago
I'd be against that; on the other hand, I don't buy that trying to make an improvement for more people than just the fully-dexterous and ten-fingered means some massive sacrifice. For that matter, I'm dubious that an interface that needs ten fingers to handle shifting between applications constitutes any massive improvement for anyone.
- DanielStraight 17y ago
  Right. I use ten fingers to type. Sometimes I don't even use all ten. If I feel like being lazy, I'll type with one hand. Sometimes I scroll my trackball with a single finger while taking a drink of coffee. I don't want all ten of my fingers on an interface at all times.

raintrees 17y ago

Have dictation systems (like Dragon) gotten any better at switching between dictation mode and command mode?