

The best interface is no interface - thusu
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/17/8103593/golden-krishna-best-interface-is-no-interface-excerpt

======
beat
"No interface" actually means "no mobile phone interface". Let's not kid
ourselves... interface is still important.

Take the author's critical example of a smartphone app to unlock your car.
Yes, that's terrible. Now, let's look at the actual interface - the key. I've
owned two Subarus now. I loved the keyless entry device on my 1999 Outback. I
feel the keyless entry on my 2010 Forester was a step backwards. I
accidentally trigger it when I don't want to. It's unreliable, often taking
several presses to work. It adds an extra button I've never used that is
redundant functionality.

How about another interface? We recently got a new turkey baster, made by Good
Grips. It has a built-in rest. Turkey basters get greasy-dirty, and you keep
using them off and on for hours. The rest keeps it from getting grease all
over your counter. That's a great user interface!

The problem isn't "no interface". The problem is "there's an app for that".
Not everything falls under smartphone convenience. That doesn't mean it
doesn't have a UI.

~~~
beachstartup
i've also owned two keyless cars back to back with slightly different
interfaces (two different german manufacturers, in my case) and here are my
thoughts, mostly i completely agree with you:

1\. touch-handle to unlock is awesome and useful 2\. touch-handle to lock is
worse than useless. keep this on the fob and on the interior. nobody reaches
for the exterior handle when they're walking away from the car. 3\. the touch
shouldn't be too sensitive, and should only be on the inside of the door
handle (or under the door handle, whatever the layout is) - my 4\. there
should be a delay of about 500ms i.e. touch it for half a second before it
unlocks. 5\. no button, like you mentioned

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
Mobile OS designs have little or no contextual awareness or proximity
sensitivity, and GPS is too inaccurate to solve that problem.

It wouldn't be rocket science to add a layer that worked out whether you were
walking towards or away from some specific hardware reference transceiver,
checked some credentials, and responded with some action.

So - car "keys", hotel room "keys", house "keys", house lights, virtual
boarding passes and other travel tickets, etc.

Watch is supposed to do some of this but the UIKit in iOS wasn't really
designed for this kind of interaction. So the 'wave your watch around to
unlock your room' idea still isn't as streamlined as it could be. NFC/RFID may
not be the right technology for this.

It's a good bet that Apple and Google have either worked this out already or
will work it out very soon. Disney already have.

It's true that current app UIs are non-ideal. But apps are a transitional
solution, and I don't expect them to be around in their current form for more
than another few years at most.

------
weixiyen
The example he gave regarding opening a car door is not fair. The alternative
is a car key. Let me give you a step by step example of what it's like to open
the car door with a car key.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

.... 5 hours later

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Walk around with a key in my pocket.

Pull out key.

Open car door.

\---

Yeah, give me the app that opens up my car door any day of the week, or a
retina scanner on my car's lock.

~~~
sooheon
Remember this is someone for whom opening a frequently used app is a multi
step, disorienting process. Your instructions are nowhere near clear enough.
I'd propose to add:

Recursively search through jailer style fractal key ring for car key

Find key and hold it between thumb and forefinger

Manoeuvre hand so as to separate car key from others

Insert into hole

Rotate

...etc.

------
liyanchang
The best interface is indeed no interface and it's the end goal of a long
design and product process.

There's probably some Maslow's hierarchy for design that looks like (designer
friends - please let me what wheel I'm reinventing please):

1\. The system has to be told exactly how to perform a task. 2\. The system
has reasonable defaults on how to do it. You push execute. 3\. The system
knows what you want and just does it.

The car key app requiring 13 steps means we're still in phase 1. The fact that
it works at all is forward progress because before you couldn't do it at all!
(One might argue that it's right now not useful and I would probably agree
with that.[0][1])

The next step forward is probably to geofence your car and when you're near, a
push notification asks you if you'd like to open your car door.

Finally, we get to the two step walk to door, open door.

We've got a long way to go and I applaud Mr. Krishna for pushing us further
along. It does seem therefore that we should encourage app designers to
continue to make apps with clunky interfaces so that we can begin the journey
towards the goal - no interface at all.

I'd actually love to hear examples of systems that leapfrog from nonexistence
to it's final evolution without intermediate steps. That would be really
fascinating.

[0] Unrelated - rented a car once with remote keyless entry and keyless start
- it is indeed a magical experience when the key never has to leave your
pocket.

[1] Having gone through winter on the East Coast recently, I do think phone
remote start might singlehandedly make the app worth it.

~~~
digi_owl
I would not trust 3 even if we reach the point where we are making Jeeves
level AI assistants. And 2 better damn well have a easy way to get to 1, just
in case those defaults don't fit the situation (and by Murphy you can be sure
they will not).

~~~
slavik81
Consider a door with a handicap button. The interface is: press button, door
opens. Now consider a door with a motion sensor, the new interface is: walk
towards door, door opens.

This is basically an example of eliminating an interface. You rarely think
about these interfaces because they just do the right thing. Many very simple
operations have interfaces, and you can sometimes streamline or remove those
interfaces using simple mechanisms.

~~~
digi_owl
Adn then the sensor fails or similar, and we need some other way to open and
close. Never mind some way to prop it open in case something larger needs to
go through.

------
estebank
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned "The Design of Everyday Things"[1], talking
about human interaction design. It makes the same points, a few decades
earlier so there're no references to mobile apps, but the distilled take away
are the same ones:

* Be obvious

* Avoid extraneous "ornaments" in the interaction

* Understand what your user needs

Of course those three bullet points do not make the book (either of them, I
assume) justice, but you might want to read Donald A. Norman's book first.
Another book you might be interested in is Don't Make me Think[2], which _is_
specifically related to software UI design.

I agree with the point that using smartphones for everything is a step back.
Having touchscreens in cars is also a step back. We went from having controls
that could manipulated without taking the eyes on the road to fancy futuristic
UIs that require either for you to be parked, to have a companion or do
something potentially dangerous.</rant>

[1]: [http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-
Norman/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-
Norman/dp/0465067107/)

[2]: [http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-
Usability/dp/032134...](http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-
Usability/dp/0321344758/)

~~~
semi-extrinsic
I'm all for bashing touchscreens in cars (and in general), but I've never seen
a new car that doesn't have the "multifunction steering wheel" where you can
control almost everything (usually not the ventilation though) without taking
your hands off the wheel. They require a few hours of getting used to each
layout, but past that, they're great interfaces.

------
pdxgene
Just came in to say, Golden gave this talk at our conference last fall, and it
was very well received. You can watch it here if you like:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0AdsVReXi8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0AdsVReXi8)

------
guelo
A better rant on the same theme is at
[http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesi...](http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesign/)

Sliding pictures under glass is not the future of interfaces.

------
userbinator
For me, I don't think anything can replace the physical sensation of putting a
key in a lock and turning it. That is, the interface feels very "real" and
solid. There's something very satisfying about that.

Likewise, as I've gotten into the habit of giving the handle a strong pull
after locking to make sure it's locked, I don't think a proximity system would
work so well for me.

~~~
gtwy
My 3 year old Mazda uses a key fob. As long as the key is on my person, the
doors will unlock and the car will turn on without me needing to press any
buttons on the keys themselves nor do I have to turn my key in the steering
column. I have had to use rentals from time to time and the entire act of
pulling my key from my picked is so inconvenient and annoying (I know, I know,
FWP.)

------
r00fus
I don't understand the rant. So BMW's smartphone app is flawed. Meanwhile my
2005 Prius has keyless entry that simply works and last a several years per
battery change. It's single purpose and only works when very close to the car.

80% of the author's frustration could be resolved with a lockscreen widget
that launches the app into the appropriate action, preferably authenticated
with fingerprint/TouchID/passcode.

Then it becomes a) pull out phone, b) unsleep display c) use lock screen
widget d) authenticate using passcode/TouchID.

~~~
pikzen
>Then it becomes a) pull out phone, b) unsleep display c) use lock screen
widget d) authenticate using passcode/TouchID.

What if I want another widget on my screen ? Do I put it there too ? Where do
I stop ?

And in any case, it is still longer than just a) pulling a handle.

The whole point of the rant is that interfaces shouldn't be something we have
to go through: they should be transparent. In the case he presented
(Siemens'), there is no interface.

We have built a culture of "there's an app for that" where 99% of these apps
are absolute, total crap. You don't need Tapatalk's app to browse forums, you
don't need an app to turn on your lights, etc. An unbelievable amount of apps
are actually slower at doing something than they were supposed to solve.

~~~
wingerlang
Eventually I guess it would just probe around for some bluetooth device and
show the car key app when connected.

------
andrewfong
Two related discussions / articles that come to mind:

Disney's Magicband
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9177105](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9177105))

A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3212949](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3212949))

------
supercoder
The best Verge is no Verge.

~~~
theVirginian
They wrote some article about Eric Schmit being a sexist asshole the other day
(maybe yesterday) and low and behold the senior editor was talking trash to
people in the comments section. It was a flimsy terrible article that I
honestly felt contributed nothing to tech journalism on one side, or diversity
and women's inclusion on the other. It was almost as if they wrote it to pick
a bone with their readers and then battle it out over the blowback. Sometimes
I honestly cannot stand that website.

------
mshenfield
This made me think me think of all the applications for smartphones beyond,
well, apps. It is after all a computer in your pocket. There are options with
a contextual interface, like RFC and IF (formerly known as IFTTT). The BMW
example could hypothetically support an RFC tag by your door that you've pre-
configured to trigger the BMW unlock API call.

There's also an advantage to not having to carry around a key, replacing it
with a digital trigger that lives on your smartphone. One less thing to carry
around, and that goes even for the app.

------
BurningFrog
I absolutely don't want my phone to be the only key. It's bad enough that I
lose Uber when the phone battery runs out. Don't take my car too!!

As for the UI, Apple Pay does this right.

------
coderzach
I'm being pedantic, but "No interface" implies that there is no interaction
between user and device which would make the device useless. The interface is
the point of communication between user and device. Every device needs an
interface. I think a better term would be "No Input".

The author mentions a weather app and an app that shows basic stock market
data as examples, but it's unclear to me how those problems could be solved
with "No interface".

~~~
pbhjpbhj
It's not even "no input". Your approach to the car is the input, it's "no
extraneous action to provide input". You're using as the input normal user
activity that precedes a necessary response.

Sorry too if that's too pedantic.

------
omnibrain
Google had something great in Android 4 with the Lock Screen Widgets. I had my
SONOS and TV Controls on the lockscreen and could glace on a rain radar app
without unlocking the tablet. Honestly I'm not sure if I would have placed a
car unlock app there, but on the other hand losing a key is just as likely.

With Android 5 this useful functionality just disappeared.

------
Tagbert
I don't want to have to use an app to unlock the car but I don't want to have
to carry bulky keys around either.

I want to walk up to the car. The car recognizes me because I'm carrying my
phone (or watch) When I pull on the door handle it unlocks because of the
proximity of the phone.

This is similar to how my car and keyfob work now but I want to carry one less
item.

------
ChikkaChiChi
Was Golden Krishna paid to write this article, or did The Verge receive any
compensation?

I ask because this is more or less an advert for his book. The introduction is
presented in the third person to introduce the excerpt, and the closing is a
pitch on why you should buy the book.

------
sleepyhead
"This article brought to you by the upcoming Apple Watch - open the car door
by tapping your the watch on your wrist"

------
theVirginian
If you have not read Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things I highly
recommend it.

------
brudgers
The big design challenge is eliminating car door locks.

------
Dewie
Articles like this are so aggravating to read[1]. I want to skim and get to
the point where they actually start to discuss the actual idea, so that I can
determine if it's worth it to me to read it. But they want to build up to it
as if I'm reading some god damn novel.

Also, the author addresses his readers as if we're some kind of touch-screen
natives who uses our phones and other touch-screen devices to accomplish
everything in our lives, and we could never conceive of anything else[2]. Am I
the only one who was _never_ enamoured with actually using smart phones? They
are a pain to write messages on, they are a slightly less of a pain to browse
with, and they are passable to good for everything else.

And the fact that it takes many steps to do something with your phone is
supposed to be surprising? It's practically inevitable: one entry point (swipe
to unlock etc.) to do all your tasks, equipped with a 5" screen. Good luck.

Thankfully, it turns out that the author's point was more novel than something
silly like "What if we didn't use smart phone interfaces, but some other
interface instead? WOW...". I hadn't considered a solution like Siemens'. I
don't know if it is preferable to my key that already has a remote attached,
but it's very interesting.

[1] Yes, I know it's a chapter from his book. But it's published as an article
so I will judge it as such.

[2] "Don’t let your emotions blind you" \- How about "don't talk down to me"?

★★★

Side note: He has a point about 'everything has to be an app', though. I'm
supposed to be using some form of identification, and they used to send out a
_piece of paper_ and a little "this is valid for this time period" thing to
attach to your card. Now, they have phased that out for an app. An app. To
replace a piece of paper and a card. No, I don't think it even replaces the
card since you use it to access certain places.

~~~
mrweasel
>Am I the only one who was never enamoured with actually using smart phones?
They are a pain to write messages on, they are a slightly less of a pain to
browse with, and they are passable to good for everything else.

You're not the only one, in fact I don't even think they any good at browsing.
The whole touch screen interface is pretty much flawed for anything where you
not limited to a few large button. It simply doesn't make sense that you
covering information with our fingers. Discoverability is often pretty bad,
mostly I suspect it's because of limited screen space, there simply isn't room
for information, navigation and my fingers.

------
kleer001
The best ____is no __ __.

------
ronototo
The best picture is no picture

