
How 'Minority Report' Trapped Us in a World of Bad Interfaces - firmgently
https://theawl.com/how-minority-report-trapped-us-in-a-world-of-bad-interfaces-d8d2d2af41da#.rwihipewn
======
panic
The linked article by Bret Victor on the future of computer interfaces is
worth reading:
[http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesi...](http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesign/)

Of course, Pictures Under Glass interfaces have advantages too. Touching a
screen has become a familiar way to interact with technology: a more tactile
interface might be harder to learn. To make a screen-based interface, you only
need to draw a 2D picture and respond to 2D touches, not design a 3D object
which can be manipulated in space. You can buy touch panels off the shelf
instead of having to manufacture expensive custom 3D parts.

But these are advantages of easiness and cheapness, not quality. If designers
and engineers can put in the time to make a physical interface and users can
put in the time to learn it, you can improve quite a bit on Pictures Under
Glass. Think about how terrible it would be to replace a car's steering wheel
with a touch screen, for example.

So that's really what the article is saying: we should think of touch screens
as the cheap, easy option, not the exciting, futuristic one. Our futuristic
starship control panel should be a custom-manufactured physical interface
instead of a cheap glass panel.

~~~
makmanalp
Well, so the thing that I think people don't realize about gestural interfaces
is that gestures are hard to do and tiring to do all day. They are also very
low bandwidth. Typing is hard to beat in terms of bandwidth / strain. But
there _are_ things that gesturing is better at, and I like that that article
focuses on that. I think the mistake is to try to get a catchall. That's why
we have both a keyboard and a touchpad / mouse. Each does a different kind of
task. Touchscreen typing, on the other hand, is a step back. Game console
typing is like 20 steps back.

~~~
dgudkov
>Typing is hard to beat in terms of bandwidth / strain

We type only because we can't talk to computers (although it starts changing).
Voice control would easily beat typing.

~~~
jacobolus
Phonetic chording keyboards are faster than typical speech, they just take a
lot of training to learn. A regular keyboard with extensive custom shortcuts
for common words is also potentially faster than speech, but not nearly as
ergonomically friendly as a chording keyboard.

Keyboards are also _much_ better than speech for making very precise inputs.
You’ll be hard-pressed to invent a speech interface which outdoes vim (for
instance) for efficiency at general text editing tasks, even if you have a
general AI interpreting the speech commands. Even just for straight typing
computer code, mathematical formulae, musical notes, poetry with precise
constraints on punctuation & spelling & layout, or e.g. controlling a video
game or CAD program, a keyboard is much more effective than speech. A keyboard
input can also have real-time response to partial input, like autocomplete,
etc.

Perhaps most importantly, typing on a keyboard doesn’t distract/leak the
content of your typing to everyone in earshot.

~~~
dgudkov
With proper AI editing by voice will look different -- probably more like
talking to a smart assistant rather than "cut here paste here". Keyboards and
mouses will probably remain for some particular tasks (e.g. math formulas or
CAD design) although it won't be the mainstream input method -- more like a
helper device.

------
maldusiecle
Crazy that this guy criticizes the Minority Report interfaces and then makes
the terrible claim that interfaces ought to make use of humans' ability to
grip. Not all humans have strong grips, particularly the elderly. There's a
reason newer buildings use lever handles over doorknobs.

My hope would be that the interfaces of the future would be more accessible to
the disabled, not less.

~~~
mistercow
It seems pretty obvious that accessibility is always going to require extra
thought. Some people are paralyzed from the neck down, but we still have
keyboards.

In any case, why do you think that using gripping as a UI action implies that
you'd need a strong grip to use it?

~~~
maldusiecle
Sure, it's always going to require extra thought, but why create problems when
you don't need to? There's this entire train of reasoning that seems to be
that a rich interface is one that places as many demands as possible on the
human body. That thinking will inevitably lead to problems of this type. If
grip isn't necessary, why make it necessary? I could have made a number of
objections of this type to the article, but this seems the most obvious and
understandable one.

~~~
nitrogen
_why create problems when you don 't need to?_

I don't think it's fair to make non-disabled individuals use a less productive
interface, just as it's not fair to prevent disabled individuals from using
the interface of their choice.

~~~
CaptSpify
How is gripping more productive? I'm not disabled, but much prefer grippless
handles because they are easier/simpler to use.

~~~
nitrogen
I was speaking in more general terms, but I'll provide some examples.

I grip my mouse to use its side buttons to navigate forward/backward in a web
browser. Human hands are generally good at holding things, and flat
touchscreens/trackpads aren't very holdable. Power tools, steering wheels,
gear shifts, volume knobs -- all examples of things that are gripped.

------
jccalhoun
I don't know if Minority Report started the trend, but there is one thing that
I have really grown tired of in movies with futuristic tech: transparent
screens.

I realize that they let the director film the actor without something blocking
the camera but they just seem like a lazy way to be "futuristic."

~~~
jasonm23
As a side note what on earth are these?

[https://s-media-cache-
ak0.pinimg.com/736x/bd/17/68/bd1768e3a...](https://s-media-cache-
ak0.pinimg.com/736x/bd/17/68/bd1768e3a8b5620d72841075d93d5909.jpg)

And why are they in so many sci-fi graphical UIs?

------
adambmedia
More productive is to try and understand why Minority Report has successfully
captured the imagination of so many, persisted over a decade, spawned an
entire genre of syfy interface trope that we see in virtually every film
having anything to do with future, beyond film, well into games and now
commercial interface development.

The assertion that the gesture interface is some kind of virulent ear-worm,
dismisses what may be the most interesting thing, the fact that it has
captured the imagination of so many. Why?

~~~
jerf
I don't think it's hard to imagine why the gestural interface survives _in the
movies_. It's very visual. The main actor is moving and full of action and may
even be literally jumping around. It's as cinematic as the Hollywood OS
representation of hacking is.

Meanwhile, out here in the real world, I'm a real computer programmer and my
real interface is even _more_ boring looking than a standard Windows install.
Nobody's going to be mining my UI for Hollywood ideas anytime soon, despite
the fact that I, on occasion, actually hack.

It's the same reason cars explode when they go over cliffs, bullets spark when
they hit things, and all those other tropes.

------
mnutt
A few days ago I tried out an HTC Vive VR device with Google's Tilt Brush app.
It's basically MS Paint in 3D. You hold both Vive controllers and have a brush
in one hand and your palette in the other.

I was amazed how intuitive the controller UI was. Some of the controls are on
the back of your hand, but it was incredible how natural it was to pick up and
use comfortably. I've never been all that fond of the Minority Report floating
screen UIs, but other 3D UIs can feel very natural in the right context.

------
legulere
> If Jeff Han had designed a keyless entry system for a car, it would’ve
> involved dragging a secret gesture on the car’s window instead of the car
> automatically unlocking when you open the handle if you have the key in your
> pocket.

So basically: "Good design is invisible"

~~~
sp332
Both examples are invisible. But one works with the flow of getting in your
car and the other requires arcane gestures.

~~~
minitech
That’s not what “invisible” means in this context. A better name might be
”unnoticed”. It’s interface sufficiently natural as not to add to the things
you have to think about.

------
coldcode
It was a good interface for predicting future crimes of bad interface design.

------
clock_tower
Now I want to be in position to order a GUI, preferably for some sort of
notarization or document-drafting app.

I'll explain that I'm actually thinking of a movie for the UI, and I want it
to be as exactly like that as possible; I'm sure they get this request really
often, and it won't be anything new to them; and I'll explain that I even
brought some scenes from the movie to show them _exactly_ what I wanted. And
then I'll be grudgingly persuaded to pop in the relevant DVD...

And the scenes will be from a pirate movie, with an old-timey European
pirate/bandit/mercenary chief writing with a quill on parchment while wearing
a coat with ruffles and lace.

Only quills will work as pointing devices. To save your work, you sprinkle
some sand on the tablet and blow it off. The tablet comes with a breathalyzer
attachment, which checks for enough rum in the air to prove that you're a
legit pirate but not so much rum that you're signing contracts while drunk.
Voice input must be in Ebonics, which is pretty much what the Cavaliers spoke
in the English Civil War. Voice output is in a thick Devonshire burr (the
classic pirate accent) that makes you think that the app's probably half
drunk.

Now, if only someone's eccentric enough to do it...

~~~
jackfrodo
Ha, if you're ever in the area, you seem like you'd appreciate 826 Valencia's
pirate supply store in the Mission district of SF.

[http://826valencia.org/store/](http://826valencia.org/store/)

~~~
clock_tower
I'll keep it in mind; it looks well worth a visit!

I'm also toying with the idea of getting some reenactor-grade pirate clothing:
long-wearing like nobody's business, and relatively easy to care for. I've
even found places that sell those leather cavalry boots with turned-down tops!
For an extravagant price, of course...

------
kayoone
This is also what comes to mind when comparing the giant touchscreen in a
Tesla Model S to the haptic buttons and knobs in most other premium brands.
Especially when driving, touchscreens just seem an inferior way to interact
with the systems.

~~~
toomanybeersies
Driving, yes absolutely, because you're constantly about 6 feet away from
hitting something.

For flying, touch screens are a great idea, since you have a lot of controls,
and attention to where exactly you're going is less critical, since you're
usually >1000 ft from the nearest solid object. Also, aircraft usually have
autopilot (and often a copilot).

I guess with Tesla's autopilot, it might make the touch screen a bit more
usable? (at least while driving on a highway I guess).

------
clock_tower
Cost is another driver here; touchscreens are significantly cheaper than
buttons, and can be used to do more things -- at the cost of being awful for
typing on.

------
nisse72
I want a 2-knob "mouse" like the one I had on my etch-a-sketch 30 years ago!
One for X, one for Y...

[ 3 minutes of googling later... ]

Of course it's been done:
[https://mitxela.com/projects/etch_mouse](https://mitxela.com/projects/etch_mouse)

~~~
will_pseudonym
I'm curious; why does this appeal to you?

------
StillBored
I haven't been a big fan of many of the UI changes in the past few years, but
I realized the other day that these changes have actually resulted in
_DEATHS_.

[http://www.detroitnews.com/story/obituaries/2016/06/20/obit-...](http://www.detroitnews.com/story/obituaries/2016/06/20/obit-
anton-yelchin/86130184/)

Cause you know, having the shift level position indicate what gear its in,
just isn't "cool"...

------
samstave
what happened to "Oblong" technologies (the guys who actually did the minority
report UI/UX and turned it into a conference room app/system)

~~~
PT_2014
They morphed their high end concept stuff into smart meeting room and team
collaboration tool platform called Mezzanine (- see
[http://www.oblong.com/](http://www.oblong.com/)) which is sold into large
enterprise class customers e.g IBM, SAP, Accenture, NASA, GE etc.

~~~
rbanffy
I kept imagining the kind of BS the actors are talking about the fake
graphics.

------
corysama
Here's a nicely realistic breakdown of the physical affordances involved in
useful interfaces in VR.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id86HeV-
Vb8&t=5m34s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id86HeV-Vb8&t=5m34s)

------
peter303
Some people blame Xerox Parc for locking the world into the office metaphor.
Some widely icons like floppy disks and phonsets represent obselete objects.

The ancient Greeks used rooms of a house to organize information. Just think
we could of ended up with that instead.

~~~
bparsons
Microsoft tried that in 1995. It was an interface called Microsoft Bob.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob)

------
dmtroyer
T9 Texting RIP.

~~~
muad
I am getting rid of my smartphone after it breaks and downgrading to a flip
phone.

I am actually looking forward to being able to type with one hand again.

~~~
nisse72
With the thumb of the same hand that's holding the phone? Welcome to RSI hell!

------
rbanffy
Until we are able to dynamically reconfigure our devices to offer context-
aware controls that we can grab, touchscreens seem to be a preferable
alternative to buttons. You don't want your desk to become the Apollo CM
dashboard.

~~~
knolax
>context aware controls

you mean key-bindings?A full keyboard already has ~100 keys.

~~~
rbanffy
A keyboard cannot morph into a joystick.

------
jpindar
If you're interested in this kind of thing, you might like the book "Make It
So" by Nathan Shedroff and Christopher Noessel, which discusses the interfaces
used in movies.

------
realfinkployd
Don't pretend you don't want a 3d printer with a Tony Stark design UI :)

------
atarian
And despite his acute taste for good interfaces, he offers no solution to the
"trap".

~~~
eridius
It's perfectly legitimate to criticize something without offering an
alternative solution.

~~~
lj3
Is it? What value does criticism bring if there's nothing actionable in the
criticism?

~~~
rootbear
To inspire someone to work on it?

