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We need a bigger touch screen
a day ago
- Humans need space to express themselves, but screens are small and restrict movement to finger twitches and limited eye movement.
- The touch screen removed a barrier between people and technology, enabling more natural interaction.
- A desk-sized touch screen could offer a transformative experience, allowing full-body movement and peripheral vision.
- Such a screen would not just be a new device but a completely new kind of computing experience.
- Current mobile devices are useful, but we are missing the big picture of full-sized interactive surfaces.
The Anti-Mac User Interface (1996)
13 days ago
- The article explores an alternative to the WIMP interface called the Anti-Mac interface, which emphasizes language, rich object representations, expert users, and shared control.
- It critiques Macintosh design principles like metaphors, direct manipulation, see-and-point, and consistency, arguing they limit innovation and adaptability for future users.
- Key Anti-Mac principles include a central role for language (though not full natural language understanding), richer internal and external object representations, more expressive interfaces, targeting expert users, and shared control between users and systems.
- The article highlights the mutual reinforcement of design principles and how they align with evolving user needs, such as networked environments and vast information objects.
- Examples like the World Wide Web and agents illustrate the benefits of shared control and adaptability over stability and user-only control.
- It concludes by advocating for integrated, bottom-up redesigns to leverage advancing hardware capabilities, rather than retrofitting features onto existing interfaces.
Show your hands honor for the power they bring you
24 days ago
- Early typists exceeded expected typing speeds due to overlapping finger movements, a phenomenon called overlapping.
- Computers initially had slow, remote interactions, leading to unpleasant typing delays and echo issues.
- Local echo and buffers were developed to improve typing responsiveness, but UI blocking remained a problem.
- Parallel processing (front-end and back-end brains) was introduced to prevent UI blocking and maintain real-time feedback.
- Loading states aim to make software feel fast, sometimes using optimistic updates or delays for better user experience.
- Motor memory allows for fast, subconscious interactions, like password typing or keyboard shortcuts, but requires respectful design.
- Shift and Caps Lock evolved as different modal toggles, with some designs like joint Shift/Caps Lock keys and thumb shift keyboards improving efficiency.
- Good interfaces include features like dead zones, modifier key flexibility, and emergency stops (e.g., Esc) to accommodate fast, error-prone fingers.
- Scrolling interactions, such as Apple's momentum scrolling and two-finger trackpad panning, exemplify fluid, finger-friendly design.
- Design principles like debouncing, spring-loading, and avoiding distractions (e.g., hovercards) are crucial for respecting finger speed and motor memory.

Hasty Briefsbeta

human-computer interaction

We need a bigger touch screen

The Anti-Mac User Interface (1996)

Show your hands honor for the power they bring you