

Magic Ink - cubicle67
http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/

======
cubicle67
Here's my question, why _aren't_ we designing interfaces like this? It's 2009
now, and I don't see things changing in the next few years.

I've spent the best part of the day mulling over this question (it's evening
here now), and the best I can come up with, it that it's _hard_.

With desktop apps, which is where most of my experience lies, there's simply
no easy way to do much of what he's suggesting. Putting a few radio buttons
and drop-down lists on a form is simple, but to create something like the
flight schedule <http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/p/flight_redesign.png> is not.

Why is this? Is it because it really is too hard to do this on an individual
basis? Are our expectations too low? Is it lack of exposure to ideas like
this? In short, why are we still displaying choices pretty much the same way
we have been for the last 30 years?

~~~
jonmc12
I remember finding this article on Digg in April '07. To me it was gospel - I
contacted the author thinking for sure someone else had shared his vision and
wanted to bring these ideas to all kinds of applications. At the time, not
really - he had gotten a lot of attention for being innovative, but in terms
of deeper interest it was mostly from those academically interested in the
ideas. (although perhaps Apple hired him for their deep interest as well).

Why did this fantastic article take so long to make its way to hacker news? In
fact, I ask myself why I did not submit it here having read it half a dozen
times over the last couple years.

I'm not sure I can answer this question. But to me there is most definitely a
delay between the output of innovative, unproven ideas, and the acceptance of
even discussing these ideas in an engineering community. Maybe somewhere in
this dynamic lies the answer to both our questions.

~~~
pie
Absolutely. I rarely see such insightful, constructive, and inspirational
writing about UI design floating around the web. Relatively little has changed
since this written, and it still looks so innovative and even "futuristic." I
think just about everyone on HN can take something new away from this.

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tumult
This guy (Bret Victor) also wrote an excellent article a few years back,
Alligator Eggs <http://worrydream.com/AlligatorEggs/>

Every now and then, probably about twice a year, I come across something so
good I print it out and keep it. This is one of those articles.

(apologies if only cubicle67 gets this joke)

~~~
cubicle67
Only doing what I'm told :)

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niels
This is clearly the best Human Computer Interaction article I've ever read.
Great stuff. Thanks.

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Hexstream
I really like the the idea of star-rating "whiskers":

<http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/#p115>

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diN0bot
(ahh my eyes. the font is so small and squished. when i 'apple-+' the menu
disappears off to the right but oh well)

~~~
cubicle67
There's a PDF link at the very top of the page. Is it more readable for you
that way?

