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The Cooper Journal: The best interface is no interface

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Re: The Cooper Journal: The best interface is no interface

#21

Post by carlesfe »

allenp wrote: post #10
carlesfe wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My grandfather, a regular country man, is horrorized by the amount of choices he has. Nowadays there is a remote for the TV with a lot of buttons, another for the video decoder, with more buttons, and another for the radio, with yes, more buttons. He was used to have a machine which worked upon being switched on. The TV had buttons labeled 1-10 for the ten channels. The radio only needed a dial and a volume slider. H…

I'm not affiliated with this product but it looks like the remote you're talking about: https://www.flipperremote.com/ We need more of this kind of conversation at HN - identify a problem or pain point and talk about how to meet that need.

Whoa, that's exactly it. Now at least I know what to look for. Thanks for the reference!

Re: The Cooper Journal: The best interface is no interface

#22

Post by sp332 »

ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #13
ch wrote: post #9

I'm curious just how far down the rabiit hole you can take this philosiphy. Just how many APIs and programming interfaces and other interaction points of a computer can be eliminated or automated away or even made to adapt to user preferences? What would this mean for the divide between the Operating System and its Applications?

Pretty far. Imagine one day not having a remote for your tv at all, and just looking at a certain spot(camera) on the TV saying, "TV, turn on" "next channel, next channel" "louder". That would completely eliminate the need for a UI or menu or remote.

It would get rid of the remote, but it doesn't get rid of the interface. And who wants to talk over a movie you're watching just to change the volume?

Re: The Cooper Journal: The best interface is no interface

#24

Post by onli »

stan_rogers wrote: post #14
freehunter wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My grandparents always lament how complicated things are these days. They too just want a simple 1-10 and on/off remote. These do exist, but I keep reminding them why it's not possible for them: they have cable. And a DVR. And a DVD player. And a sound bar. In the days of simple on/off TVs, these didn't exist. I know they're not going to give up the Food Network, ESPN, Nickelodeon for the great-grandkids, CSI, etc. T…

How about ten (or so) nice big buttons with OLED key caps? I've used rather remarkably simple smart remotes in the past; their only real problem being that they used resistive, early-generation LCD touch screens, which are not great from a tactile perspective. A simple, clearly labelled remote that's capable of changing context beats the heck out of three or four devices with dozens of tiny, poorly-labelled rubber ch…

It doesn't necessarily beat the heck out of anything. Tools with changing contexts, be it a remote or software, are highly confusing for users. They always have to remember in which state they are, especially hard when there is bad visibility (like a remote you want to press blindly). vi isn't hated by so many without a cause.

Re: The Cooper Journal: The best interface is no interface

#25

Post by onli »

ch wrote: post #9

I'm curious just how far down the rabiit hole you can take this philosiphy. Just how many APIs and programming interfaces and other interaction points of a computer can be eliminated or automated away or even made to adapt to user preferences? What would this mean for the divide between the Operating System and its Applications?

One example of an interface which you could possibly get rid of is the password-interface.

Identify people by voice, the way they type, walk, their body-shape, fingerprint (already used), whatever you can think of. Especially when combined this could identify someone pretty accurately.

Of course, using these features is only the first step. If it's still an interface, a "say your password screen and look into the camera", that's no real progress (apart from getting rid of passwords). But when using it while interacting to authorize the itneraction, it would have a great effect - like checking fingerprints on the keyboard or mouse or even better an automatic iris-scan or anything.

(Tried to build the first step of a prototype for this in my cs-bachelor-thesis)

Re: The Cooper Journal: The best interface is no interface

#26

Post by msutherl »

kephra wrote: post #18

I think the main problem is that programs are designed by programmers who think that the users are idiots. Programs designed for programmers have a much leaner interface. e.g. think about accounting applications: You had trained data typists in the 60s, who typed the accounting records in a format, that can be directly processed in a batch oriented way. You had 3270 terminals in the 70s, for trained typists, to enter…

This is not "the main problem". This is "a" specific way of looking at things that becomes relevant in certain situations.

There are factors at play that often render this view naive, such as the fact that untrained consumers need to learn a panoply of interfaces constantly over time. Most contemporary interface designs that you come across outside of specific professional domains are optimized for learnability by making use of physical metaphors and adhering to conventions. I trust that you believe that this is not for a good reason. The results of usability studies show otherwise. The fact that interfaces are the way they are shows otherwise. The experience of myself and many people I've met shows otherwise.

Where training can be afforded, interfaces can be more "lean", but more often than not, it cannot. I suspect that you are underestimating (1) the commitment you've made to allocating time to learning new interfaces and (2) your talent in doing so.

As for me, I likewise prefer VI as an interface, since I allocated a year of free-time to learning to be productive with the damn thing, but I could have spent that year instead living my life.

Re: The Cooper Journal: The best interface is no interface

#27

Post by pacificleo1 »

This post perfectly explain how i feel about the way an interface should be done . however this seems unlikely in near future . more and more services are going free and by doing so they have to slap an advertisement somewhere and to slap an advertisement they will have to keep the user inside the container so they will need an Interface .

Re: The Cooper Journal: The best interface is no interface

#29

Post by agumonkey »

colmvp wrote: post #8
csmatt wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First off, I liked the article. He's right in that visual UI should only be looked at after everything possible has been gleaned from process. As for TVs, I think most who are designing the interfaces are still stuck "inside the box". They need to take a couple steps back and learn how modern people use the interfaces. This is one of the main reasons I dropped cable and now feed my TV from a web-connected PC. The cab…

The PS3 XMB interface is still one of my favorite simple interfaces to use on a TV screen, especially since it works with only a directional gamepad and a few buttons.

Video games should be looked more carefully for they have nice properties:

    - as you mentioned, few controls needed
    - instant interaction, no formation, documentation
I remember seeing people playing final fantasy and diving into deep listings with ease and efficiency.

Re: The Cooper Journal: The best interface is no interface

#30

Post by rachelbythebay »

sp332 wrote: post #23
rachelbythebay wrote: post #15

Apparently the best page is blank without JavaScript enabled, too.

Interesting, it loaded just fine in the text-only "links" browser for me.

I found part of the problem:

#content { padding-top: 53px; z-index: 0; visibility: hidden; }

They're obviously flipping attributes around in scripting.

So, keeping with the theme of "no interface", disabling style sheets for this site will let the content display. Brilliant!

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