Inventor and designer James Patten says that traditional input devices, such as a keyboard and mouse, don’t meet the current demands of multimedia and digital needs.
Patten contributes this to the success of the Nintendo Wii and Apple iPad, offering users a whole new way to interact and manipulate data. He told Business Week about his experience using objects for a control surface:
One approach I’ve explored in depth is using physical objects on a tabletop to represent and control information inside the computer. This approach lets people organize information spatially and leverage a rich set of skills that humans have for using our sense of touch.
In one application we made, physical objects on a table represent various parts of a manufacturing supply chain. By moving and rotating these objects, one can control a simulation of that supply chain, for example, by changing the output of a factory. You can do the same thing with a keyboard and mouse, but doing it on an interactive table is easier to understand and creates a more effective learning experience.
An interesting concept when applying it to one application. I believe the key to developing a second generation of input devices, is bringing about control devices that can be applied to a broad range of computing applications.
What say, you?
[via Business Week]
David Alan Hjelle says
In general, I think humans (excepting programmers and other technical folk) are not all that good at abstraction. In turn, this makes computers hard to use for “normal” people in ways that programmers don’t tend to see.
Why does that relate? It seems to me that the more concrete we can make the abstraction of using computers, the better off everyone will be. This looks like a possibly good step in that direction—though I’m afraid we programmers may not take proper advantage of this.
Guess it’s time to break out Raskin’s “The Humane Interface” again…
Eric Dye says
Great insight!
I think you are absolutely right.