Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fantasy UI

pushing-pixels.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 154 posts

Re: Fantasy UI

#141

Post by V-2 »

LocalPCGuy wrote: post #116
afavour wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there’s a very small defined set of actions a person can take in such games: backwards, forwards, left, right, etc. By comparison pages have dozens of links, form fields, menus, etc. It’s not that they can’t be navigated with the keyboard alone, it’s that it’s rarely the most efficient way of doing it. Clicking a link will always be quicker than pressing tab X number of times to select it.

Tab is not how most keyboard only users navigate web pages. There are an entire set of built-in keyboard navigation utilities for those that cannot use a pointing device.

If I have never learned this entire set, I bet you that my mum won't learn it. Most users not only aren't power users - they have zero interest in becoming power users.

Re: Fantasy UI

#142

Post by [deleted] »

rmac wrote: post #53
tgv wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that strikes me is that these interfaces are incredibly specialized for the task at hand, and only that. You can't build for every task, you'd need a super-intelligent system that knows how to figure out what the task is and generate the appropriate UI for it.

This is why most b2b tools have boring interfaces: they don't know what the task is, so they generalize and build yet-another interface on-top of SQL. See splunk, looker, G Analytics, Stripe, Shopify, etc. Is it possible to somehow let the end user design a ui/ux that works for them?

[deleted]

Re: Fantasy UI

#143

Post by stjohnswarts »

weego wrote: post #34
krm01 wrote: post #10

As 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'm not convinced we even turned it into science. I think we turned it into a pseudo-science of confirmation biases, poor contextual understanding and even distain for our own users while actively devaluing the role that design plays in interaction.

You also have to realize that it's a feedback cycle, the more interfaces that converge the more users just get used to them, over and over, so decisions get made that tighten then loop. And then you get something like Unity and gnome 3 :D

Re: Fantasy UI

#144

Post by princesse »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #38

My fantasy UI would be a sort of large flat desktop plane, with ~infinite zoom. FVWM and other do have the one large desktop space that you scroll around, instead of discrete virtual desktops, but I want to see the ultimate version of that. A vast virtual plane that you could scroll and zoom around, drag your files/content around, make groups with marked delineations like a map. Obviously there would be some kind of…

Some of what you describe reminds me of EagleMode, you might want to try it out.

Re: Fantasy UI

#145

Post by zapzupnz »

noodles_nomore wrote: post #121
zapzupnz wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the maker of the video also write blog posts or anything? I'm very into this topic and I skimmed through the video, but I'm not sure I want to be essentially yelled at for an hour and a half.

I'm watching almost any video on 2.5-3x speed nowadays, which is faster than reading. Look for the 'Video Speed Controller' Firefox plugin.

I find reading faster and more useful (I can skim for key words, I can look for headings, I can inspect images for as long as I want) and less mentally taxing than listening to a normally-pitched reading by Alvin and the Chipmunks. :D

Re: Fantasy UI

#146

Post by zapzupnz »

coldtea wrote: post #88
tel wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking VSTs as well. It's kind of funny, I truly dislike the UI of most VSTs I use. Cluttered, hard to understand, many hidden features and menus, and often rampant unhelpful skeuomorphism. But also there are a few which are remarkable: the 3 synths from Madrona labs, the prosaic and convenient UI from Valhalla's plugins, up to the complex patchbay interface of something like VCV Rack, for instance. VSTs bala…

> and often rampant unhelpful skeuomorphism. That's the best part of it. They work like hardware, which if you get serious, you often end up buying and using as well, which means studio musicians immediately know what they do, computer musicians get to learn how hardware units works, and the designs are nice and life-like. The bad about skeuomorphism is not looking like a hardware unit, but being restricted to intera…

It would be kinda cool if the basic slideable/toggleable options of a plugin could be defined somehow so that the program/OS of your choice can render them as a nice boring inspector palette or something. Then you can choose between that and the vendor-defined skeuomorphic design. Perhaps it already exists?

Re: Fantasy UI

#147

Post by zapzupnz »

blauditore wrote: post #31
underwater wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metro is terrible as a desktop and tablet UI, but was fantastic for mobile interfaces. Microsoft's mistake was thinking UIs would converge across form factors.

I still believe the overall vision is/was good. They just would have had to make a few more compromises, like some additional optimizations for desktop where users could profit more from mouse and keybaord. But another factor was that the change was just to deep of a cut, and the world was just not ready for it. People were overwhelmed when they were expected to suddenly use magic corners and gestures instead of clic…

Seems like Microsoft thought if people could stomach the transition from XP to Vista/7, then the transition to 8 would be taken with the same amount of initial resistance followed by acceptance.

There's only so many times you can tell your customers that their hardware isn't up to snuff for your software, whether in terms of computational capability or interaction modality, in the same decade!

Re: Fantasy UI

#148

Post by meowster »

phailhaus wrote: post #108
DonHopkins wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 hilario…

I think it would be rather simple to implement. Device A recognizes gesture to share info. Device A sends a local ping asking if there are other nearby devices that are willing to accept data. Device B is willing to accept data, so it answers with a location. Device A determines Device B is in a location where the user swiped to. Device A asks Device B, will you accept flight plan data? Device B says sure. Device A sends the flight plan data. Device B determines that it is already friends with Device A, so it shows the data, otherwise maybe it would have prompted its user first.

Re: Fantasy UI

#149

Post by Osiris »

I worked at a startup that hired a designer that worked on Tron Legacy to design the main product interface and we built it. It's a very complex UI with lots of graphs and information and it was damn sexy and the information was actually useful.

Re: Fantasy UI

#150

Post by KozmoNau7 »

princesse wrote: post #144
KozmoNau7 wrote: post #38

My fantasy UI would be a sort of large flat desktop plane, with ~infinite zoom. FVWM and other do have the one large desktop space that you scroll around, instead of discrete virtual desktops, but I want to see the ultimate version of that. A vast virtual plane that you could scroll and zoom around, drag your files/content around, make groups with marked delineations like a map. Obviously there would be some kind of…

Some of what you describe reminds me of EagleMode, you might want to try it out.

That covers a lot of the basic concepts, albeit in a somewhat different format than I imagined. For one, it sticks to a grid rather than being freeform. There are certainly benefits to that. Thanks :-)
Post reply on HN