I dig a lot of these interfaces, but I'm a huge fan of simplistic CLI interfaces in sci-fi. Like fallout. I find it infinitely charming -- I love the idea of someone running Unix in the year 2983 or something
Fantasy UI
101–110 of 154 posts
Re: Fantasy UI
#102As a UI/UX agency that focusses on B2B SaaS, I’ve always found Fantasy UIs fascinating. It’s the complete opposite of the simple & clean interfaces clients ask us to design. I’ve spent some time thinking about why these Fantasy UIs are so fascinating despite the fact they seem not very user friendly. My conclusion was that fantasy Interfaces are very much like the early web. Lots of moving parts (dancing banana gifs)…
>> I’ve spent some time thinking about why these Fantasy UIs are so fascinating despite the fact they seem not very user friendly. Fantasy UIs are often flashed up as eye candy to communicate high complexity for power users that an outside observer (i.e. movie viewer) can only dream of properly mastering yet still able to grasp the "key message".
Yes, this must be it. Real-world UI design aims to be as easily understandable and usable as possible, even if it falls short. In movies, they want to convey that the hackers/astronauts/super heros have deep expertise. It would be frustrating if you saw them using a familiar Windows Start Menu because you'd feel like you yourself could just step in and do their job.
They could (and for hacker movies, sometimes do) just use a command line, but then it's hard to convey what they're doing to an audience. For a similar reason, important text in a fantasy UI is impractically large, so it's visible when the UI itself is only a fraction of the movie screen.
Re: Fantasy UI
#103As a UI/UX agency that focusses on B2B SaaS, I’ve always found Fantasy UIs fascinating. It’s the complete opposite of the simple & clean interfaces clients ask us to design. I’ve spent some time thinking about why these Fantasy UIs are so fascinating despite the fact they seem not very user friendly. My conclusion was that fantasy Interfaces are very much like the early web. Lots of moving parts (dancing banana gifs)…
> We lost the Art of interface building and turned it into a complete science. There are arguments for both sides. It was turned into a literal science by Xerox, IBM, and Microsoft (through the 90s) that involved actual study of the human body, perception, haptics, material science, light, psychology, human biases and preconceptions, holistic purpose, advances in micro mechanical engineering, usability studies, panel…
https://www.asktog.com
Is also a big contributor to this field.
Re: Fantasy UI
#104As a UI/UX agency that focusses on B2B SaaS, I’ve always found Fantasy UIs fascinating. It’s the complete opposite of the simple & clean interfaces clients ask us to design. I’ve spent some time thinking about why these Fantasy UIs are so fascinating despite the fact they seem not very user friendly. My conclusion was that fantasy Interfaces are very much like the early web. Lots of moving parts (dancing banana gifs)…
>> I’ve spent some time thinking about why these Fantasy UIs are so fascinating despite the fact they seem not very user friendly. Fantasy UIs are often flashed up as eye candy to communicate high complexity for power users that an outside observer (i.e. movie viewer) can only dream of properly mastering yet still able to grasp the "key message".
I hate to be a downer, but these fantasy UIs are also completely unusable. They have no actual users, so they can go all-in on flashy complexity without having to solve the problem of "how do I let an expert get work done most efficiently." I have never seen a fantasy UI with spreadsheets, but the fact of the matter is that Excel is much closer to a power-user interface than anything you see in movies.
Re: Fantasy UI
#105The single biggest common denominator between so many fantasy UIs, is transparent (HUD-style) interfaces. I was just watching the latest episode of The Expanse , last night, and saw them all using these transparent PDA/phones. Ever try using a transparent UI? It's absolutely maddening. Looks cool on the screen, but is pretty much unusable IRL.
It's in the carousel on that page, but here's an interview with Timothy Peel, who did those for The Expanse and also Mr. Robot. They talk about it a bit: https://www.pushing-pixels.org/2016/01/21/a-window-into-anot... I think they'd rather bring you into the world by showing the UI and interactions while also showing the actors. With a opaque device, we know they're using it, but we don't get to see any detail about…
The Expanse is also one of the few shows where phones (and tech in general) feels like characters actually use it daily. Cracked screens, casual gestures, they even just throw phones on tables and what not.
Re: Fantasy UI
#106As a UI/UX agency that focusses on B2B SaaS, I’ve always found Fantasy UIs fascinating. It’s the complete opposite of the simple & clean interfaces clients ask us to design. I’ve spent some time thinking about why these Fantasy UIs are so fascinating despite the fact they seem not very user friendly. My conclusion was that fantasy Interfaces are very much like the early web. Lots of moving parts (dancing banana gifs)…
> My wish is that... Hopefully.. one day, someone will contact us with a project that allows us to build the first fantasy UI for a real-world SaaS product.
Your best bet is to build internal tools. Interfaces aimed at consumers have to be appealing to the broadest market possible, which severely restricts how creative you can be and how much you can expect your users to learn. By contrast, internal tools have an expert, captive audience. As an added bonus you have direct access to your users, which makes it a lot easier to get feedback and iterate.
Re: Fantasy UI
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> I’ve spent some time thinking about why these Fantasy UIs are so fascinating despite the fact they seem not very user friendly. Fantasy UIs are often flashed up as eye candy to communicate high complexity for power users that an outside observer (i.e. movie viewer) can only dream of properly mastering yet still able to grasp the "key message".
I hate to be a downer, but these fantasy UIs are also completely unusable. They have no actual users, so they can go all-in on flashy complexity without having to solve the problem of "how do I let an expert get work done most efficiently." I have never seen a fantasy UI with spreadsheets, but the fact of the matter is that Excel is much closer to a power-user interface than anything you see in movies.
Not a downer at all; that's the real truth. The visual eye candy is needed because Excel just doesn't excite anybody but power users, and even then only if the spreadsheet model pertains to their expert domain. I have exactly the same feeling when I see terminal output flashing up on the big screens.
Re: Fantasy UI
#108The single biggest common denominator between so many fantasy UIs, is transparent (HUD-style) interfaces. I was just watching the latest episode of The Expanse , last night, and saw them all using these transparent PDA/phones. Ever try using a transparent UI? It's absolutely maddening. Looks cool on the screen, but is pretty much unusable IRL.
I came here to say that too! Exactly what I was thinking while watching The Expanse (which is a great series), and so many other shows that pander to the cliché of pointlessly transparent phones. Goodbye privacy! Why would you ever want your phone display to be harder for YOU to see, and easier for EVERYONE ELSE to see?
Like how you can just "flick" your screen onto another computer in the same room. Which is a beautiful dream, but...how would that even work?! Everyone just has access to every other device?
Or how you can be in a room full of people, but for some reason the holographic display only works for you. And good thing all you want to do is pan and zoom, because that's about as much expressivity you get. It would be hilarious to have a scene where they struggle to get it to work, a future equivalent of "Can everyone see my screen?"
Re: Fantasy UI
#109This is interesting. Would love to see an interview with Dino Ignacio / Deadspace which has a super futuristic in-game UI.
Re: Fantasy UI
#110As a UI/UX agency that focusses on B2B SaaS, I’ve always found Fantasy UIs fascinating. It’s the complete opposite of the simple & clean interfaces clients ask us to design. I’ve spent some time thinking about why these Fantasy UIs are so fascinating despite the fact they seem not very user friendly. My conclusion was that fantasy Interfaces are very much like the early web. Lots of moving parts (dancing banana gifs)…
> We lost the Art of interface building and turned it into a complete science. In the realm of VST/AU plugins (virtual music instruments and effects), the art of interface building is alive and kicking, and the different interfaces add (a) to the excitement, (b) to be able to differentiate quickly among dozens (or 100s) of different plugins you use, (c) helps test/create novel interaction ideas... Here are example VS…
I'm a music producer and the FabFilter Pro-Q3 equalizer plugin has THE most refined, intuitive, and quick user interface I've ever experienced. They've taken the most frequently-used audio tool and found a way to really let you fly with it.
https://www.fabfilter.com/products/pro-q-3-equalizer-plug-in
Upon opening, it displays an empty field with a live frequency readout of the sound on the channel. You can click anywhere in the frequency range and it generates an EQ/filter node underneath your mouse. It's as easy as thinking about the aspect of the sound that you want to alter, and immediately having your tone-shaping underneath your fingers. You reach out and grab it.
It's most-used features (gain, frequency, Q) are all changed by dragging the node or a modifier key (Cmd). These can all be done simultaneously in what feels like a unified gesture. The default filter type is context-dependent, based on where I grab on the spectrum. So if I grab a new node in the sub-bass frequencies it will automatically provide me a high-pass filter to start filtering all unwanted low-end. Ditto for the top-end, shelving filters, etc.
The fine-controls all appear in a secondary window just beneath your mouse that follows the filter node with you as you drag it, so you won't find yourself moving back and forth across the entire screen to tweak controls. When you click on another node the fine-controls appear nearby and the controls for the first node disappear, keeping the GUI empty and very easy to read.
These features may seem simple and obvious now that I've explained them, but an EQ is easily the most-used tool in my toolbox, and FabFilter's design choices have made the process quicker, easier, and far more intuitive than any other interface out there. It really puts a lot of pleasure back into the process that would be reduced fighting with inferior interfaces.
For comparison, most software EQs are either skeumorphic to resemble classic hardware EQs like this:
https://www.uaudio.com/uad-plugins/equalizers/pultec-passive...
or a hopelessly cramped and slow panel with every available parameter on display:
https://www.waves.com/plugins/h-eq-hybrid-equalizer#h-eq-hyb...
I cannot praise FabFilter enough for the elegance, flexibility, and musicality of their products.