11–20 of 93 posts
If you like the ideas in the OP, you owe it to yourself to chew through Bret's paper. A lot of the same ideas, expanded and thought through.
He says that tapping a device against another one is undesirable, but I think people like that kind of "I have to do this for money to disappear out of my account" reassurance.
So no, thank you, no self-learning climate control systems, microwaves or lawn mowers.
While having no interface is a nice idea, I think that there's also something to be said for "Make common things easy, rare things possible." That is, it's great to try to eliminate the need for an interface, but you can't assume or even expect that you'll always succeed, so you have to have an interface anyway. Also, a lot of famous security vulnerabilities like the fact that Windows will execute things on a memory…
Worst interface is one that's trying to learn about my habits without having a broader knowledge about my personality and the world as a whole. I don't want my axe to adapt to my hand and to my way of using it. Most of all I want my axe to be reliably predictable. So no, thank you, no self-learning climate control systems, microwaves or lawn mowers.
Maybe you'd rather stick with what you're comfortable with right now, but don't count out great ideas that you might not have thought of yet.
Worst interface is one that's trying to learn about my habits without having a broader knowledge about my personality and the world as a whole. I don't want my axe to adapt to my hand and to my way of using it. Most of all I want my axe to be reliably predictable. So no, thank you, no self-learning climate control systems, microwaves or lawn mowers.
As far as ergonomics I always liked the Mercedes door handles better than those of some other cars, where you can only open the door by gripping from underneath. Interface design and ergonomics go hand in hand. I think the iPhone is a good example with its one button design and size, as opposed to clunkier cellphones with 3 or more buttons.
1. The iPhone does not have just one button. It has several other buttons at the side, and it has a GUI. 2. The one-front-button deal is one of the many things I hate about iPhones. The "go back" operation is something we do often on smart phones. I want my phone to have that at the front. I also like trackballs there.
Worst interface is one that's trying to learn about my habits without having a broader knowledge about my personality and the world as a whole. I don't want my axe to adapt to my hand and to my way of using it. Most of all I want my axe to be reliably predictable. So no, thank you, no self-learning climate control systems, microwaves or lawn mowers.
Wouldn't you want to own a Roombamower that could automatically mow your lawn after a few times around manually? Or a microwave that could recognize types of food with an internal camera, and suggest optimal cooking times based on total times you've done in the past? Maybe you'd rather stick with what you're comfortable with right now, but don't count out great ideas that you might not have thought of yet.
Roomba mower that learns - that's where it gets a bit scary. I wouldn't be comfortable with it because I wouldn't know how and what it learns from me, also how it reacts to changes in the area to be mowed. What if it learns from me to ignore anything (or anyone) that wasn't there during the training phase by running over it?