
Ask HN: Do we need better ways to interface with our computers? - robinhartley94
In the mid 80s, personal computers were released with graphical user interfaces – they were controlled by a keyboard and a mouse. Take the Amiga 500, for example (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Amiga).<p>In the last 30+ years, I think we can all agree that computers have become exponentially more powerful, but the way we control them (QWERTY keyboard and a mouse) has stayed the same.<p>Therefore, I would argue this has left us with a mess of large on-screen menus, awkward keyboard shortcuts and in many cases, no choice but to move our hands between typing commands on the keyboard and clicking with the mouse.<p>So my question to you, dear HN reader, is whether you think this is a legitimate problem, or whether there are counter arguments, for example, our user interfaces are designed more efficiently nowadays.<p>Looking to the development of the Apple Touch Bar, I would say big companies believe this is a problem, but then again, Apple typically go for very minimalist 60% keyboards so it&#x27;s not clear-cut.<p>Let me know your thoughts!
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bukka
You mentioned the Touch Bar but didn't mention smart phones?

I think the trend is clear, ideally you don't want anything between you and
your computer. Hence the rise of touch screen phones (combining the keyboard
and touch controls with the screen).

What I'm excited about is moving from 2D controls to 3D environments. It is
still a little early but if you look at VR, you can create any sort of
interface with your computer. Need more monitors? Just edit your scene. Need a
bigger or smaller monitor? Easy, edit your config file. Those monitors you
just created ... you can make them respond to touch or your eyeball movement.

The only hardware you will need is a VR kit (headset for vision and audio +
gloves/knuckles for your hand interface).

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robinhartley94
Those are really good points - thanks for the well considered reasoning.

On the smartphone side, I think we use them very differently - you wouldn't do
engineering design on a smartphone, for example, so this is maybe outside of
the use-case I was thinking about. I don't think touch screens are that
effective either - typing on them is a pain!

Your point about VR is very interesting though because people are starting to
do complicated tasks like CAD and graphic design through VR. This does mean
it's able to do tasks that typically people would spend a lot of time sat at a
desk typing and clicking to achieve.

Having many 'virtual' computer monitors displayed through a VR or AR headset
is not something I've ever thought about, but is a really cool possibility. Do
you know of any examples?

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robinhartley94
FYI, I'm interested because I'm developing software that maps single physical
keypresses (e.g. on your numpad) into complex control of applications:
[http://numpadsuperpowers.com](http://numpadsuperpowers.com)

The above argument is kinda the founding philosophy so I want to make sure
it's sound logic!

