> such as silk-screened button labels becoming faint after extended use
Becoming faint? On my Microsoft keyboard, the letters on the keys soon wore off completely. I had to re-learn touch typing.
The benefits of “low tech” user interfaces
361–370 of 410 posts
Re: The benefits of “low tech” user interfaces
#362Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you feel the need to play conversation-cop?
> Why do you feel the need to play conversation-cop? Because we're discussing a complaint about modern cars, and "always buy used ones that predate the change, and plan to die before those become unavailable" doesn't really address the complaint. It's a rather idiosyncratic and radical way of avoiding it, and bends the conversation to discussing that personal idiosyncrasy.
I suppose you now know better than to waste your time talking to me in the future, then.
Re: The benefits of “low tech” user interfaces
#363> When a user interface can get away with only icons in place of words, a low-tech user interface can work particularly well.
Icons just mean nobody can use it. Heaven help the poor user who loses the manual that has a chart to decode the icons.
Re: The benefits of “low tech” user interfaces
#364Earlier quoted context omitted.
> My microwave has one knob for time, and one knob for intensity. I don't think a knob is the optimal interface for time. In microwaves you need to input both low values of ~10s and very high values of ~600s with good precision on both cases. Sure, a logarithmic knob will give you that, but I don't think it's what you would expect. For power it's good. It's even a much better interface for the power level than the us…
I'm just curious what you cook in a microwave for 10 minutes .
Large thick skinned squashes with hard flesh like butternut, kabocha or spaghetti. Probably not on max heat, but on medium so they cook evenly.
Re: The benefits of “low tech” user interfaces
#365This article strangely undersells the advantages of low tech. It's true that they're not better for everything, but they have advantages well beyond the basic things mentioned. A tactile button has far fewer accuracy issues with positioning: if you can feel the button, you won't start pressing 2/3 off and then get further and further off until you're triggering something else, as happens all the time on touchscreens.…
I find it harder to accurately position a physical slider than a knob. The reason is pretty obvious once you realize which muscles are involved in each movement.
Well, it depends on the length/circumference. Knobs are usually more satisfying to tune, but faders are not only as precise, but give better visual feedback and you can move multiple at once.
Re: The benefits of “low tech” user interfaces
#366Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find it harder to accurately position a physical slider than a knob. The reason is pretty obvious once you realize which muscles are involved in each movement.
Well, it depends on the length/circumference. Knobs are usually more satisfying to tune, but faders are not only as precise, but give better visual feedback and you can move multiple at once.
Oh, sliders do provide better visual feedback. But they are less imprecise because your gross motor muscles move your arm to move the slider, whereas a typical knob uses the fine control muscles in your hand.
Re: The benefits of “low tech” user interfaces
#367It would make low budget SciFi movies look realistic too
Re: The benefits of “low tech” user interfaces
#368This article strangely undersells the advantages of low tech. It's true that they're not better for everything, but they have advantages well beyond the basic things mentioned. A tactile button has far fewer accuracy issues with positioning: if you can feel the button, you won't start pressing 2/3 off and then get further and further off until you're triggering something else, as happens all the time on touchscreens.…
Your post is really reassuring... I have all of these problems with touchscreens and find them almost unusable... yet I thought I was alone, because people seem to love them.
Re: The benefits of “low tech” user interfaces
#369This article strangely undersells the advantages of low tech. It's true that they're not better for everything, but they have advantages well beyond the basic things mentioned. A tactile button has far fewer accuracy issues with positioning: if you can feel the button, you won't start pressing 2/3 off and then get further and further off until you're triggering something else, as happens all the time on touchscreens.…
Your post is really reassuring... I have all of these problems with touchscreens and find them almost unusable... yet I thought I was alone, because people seem to love them.
I think it goes to show how people are surprisingly willing to settle for sub par experiences. Nearly everyone in the united states use terrible paper mate pens that scratch and skip, and use composition notebooks with cover that looks like tv static, made of center-stapled tissue paper that don't open flat.
(If any of you are suffering from terrible stationary, I would recommend trying out Midori MD Paper notebooks or Rhodia Rhodiarama notebooks. Midori makes beautiful and functional notebooks with precision ruling that satisfies the engineer in me, and Rhodia uses luxurious Clairefontaine paper suitable for fountain pens and stuff)
Re: The benefits of “low tech” user interfaces
#370Earlier quoted context omitted.
Text means that you need different versions for different international markets, which causes a lot of additional SKUs and associated logistics costs. And it's not just that, but words with the same meaning can have vastly different lengths depending on language, which may or may not fit in your original design. To name an example: If you have an fan-assisted oven, you can have a small round button labeled 'fan'. In…
> Text means that you need different versions for different international markets, which causes a lot of additional SKUs and associated logistics costs. If only we could all decide upon a "default" language to use globally, much like a lot of software out there is available only in English which seems to be good enough (almost all programming languages included) for most cases. Then again, I'm the kind of person who…
Honestly, text in another language is nearly as useful to me as inscrutable icons. Maybe even more useful as long as it's a romance or Germanic language.