
A Conversation About Fantasy User Interfaces - bootload
https://www.subtraction.com/2016/06/02/a-conversation-about-fantasy-user-interfaces/
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mpbm
Great interview. The thought that stands out for me is the repeated assertion
that fantasy UIs must serve the narrative first. That's analogous to the way a
lot of people design UIs for real products in that they tell "user stories."

However, there will always be tension between that narrative-first approach
and the real world where narratives don't exist. A real user, trying to use a
real interface, just needs it to work. There's no audience, no dramatic
tension, no character arc, etc. It just serves their needs in the moment or it
doesn't.

In a story, the fantasy UI really is a pixel-deep metaphor substituting for
the technological capabilities available to the characters. "Access denied"
isn't really an interface, it's a visual way to communicate a complex plot
point, just like all of the other crafted visuals in the movie. Nobody ever
has to puzzle over a bad interface for the same reason nobody ever has to go
to the bathroom.

But real UIs are more than one pixel deep. They're the Rosetta stone that
translates between human thought and machine logic.

So when Minority Report makes up a gesture-based interface it's because they
have to show the audience something plausible that they've never seen before.
However, when a designer makes a real gesture-based interface it's because
there's something their users can't do with the interface they're used to.

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wtbob
> However, when a designer makes a real gesture-based interface it's because
> there's something their users can't do with the interface they're used to.

You're right when the designer is good. A bad designer might make a real
gesture-based interface just because he saw Minority Report and thought that
it was cool.

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TeMPOraL
There aren't many good designers working today (or maybe their work is being
hindered in companies). If you look at contemporary UIs, they're _shallow_.
Optimized for looking nice and selling things, instead of being ergonomic and
giving users efficient ways to achieve their goals.

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EGreg
I think movies with "real" futuristic interfaces would be boring. For example
the Minority Report movie with wifi would have none of the disks being
inserted. Playback would happen in people's heads. Nothing would really be
moving. Also, Tom Cruise wouldn't be able to just go back to his base and
still get in. Also, they wouldn't make such silly mistakes letting "the hero"
have so much leeway. He'd just be quickly captured and that's it.

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mpbm
Yeah, the first thing to go in a good story is good security. Security is
designed to make sure nothing interesting ever happens. At best it slows
everything down and at worst it just outright forbids everything. That's
poison to a narrative.

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firasd
Great article. One recent example I liked: the latest Mission Impossible had
displays in fabrics, which I thought was a good alternative to smartwatches
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CYKRTPmUAAAh7bz.png:large](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CYKRTPmUAAAh7bz.png:large)

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jschwartzi
Yeah, I think having a display that isn't obviously part of your outfit will
be a really big enabler of wearable technologies. That and flexible printed
circuits that can survive dry cleaning or a washing machine.

One of the reasons Glass failed was because it was about as in-your-face as
possible. Resistive screens also failed in the same sense because having to
pull a stylus out to use your phone is aggressively technological.

In contrast, touch is a really casual interface, and though the touch UIs that
I've used all had warts it was at least possible for anyone to grasp the basic
mechanics of the interface. In my mind a wearable device that is obviously a
wearable device isn't going to be as successful as clothing that monitors your
heart rate or SpO2 because you have to consciously interact with the device.
If you fill your gym bag with smart clothes then you just wear them like you
would wear gym clothes.

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firasd
Yeah. The way I think of this is, let's start from (my subjective) aesthetic
first principles. Take an abstract human body, and look at its poses and
movements: standing, sitting (and other forms of resting), walking, running.

A smartphone is a complete failure from that perspective: looking down and
pecking at a screen? No way. Now, holding and looking at something is a
natural enough movement, but chronically craning your neck down with such
focus and duration? I doubt it. A smartwatch is a bit more natural, but to
bring up subjective aesthetics again, I'm not too comfortable with the concept
of adults wearing digital watches.

Google Glass was a step in the right direction in my opinion--you can interact
with a UI while looking straight ahead--but as you said, the camera and other
aspects weirded people out (there may be a future in contact lenses with
similar tech?) Voice interfaces like Alexa are definitely in line with my
view.

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mpbm
I don't think it's about the pose. It's about attention. To interact with a
system we have to focus on it and that means we have to take our focus off of
everything else. Computers are notoriously bad at understanding us if we
aren't focused on them exclusively.

That's why so many people are trying to get voice interaction right. It's the
most natural way to split our attention.

A lot of this IoT nonsense is trying to discover a few corner cases where
computers can do sensible things without a human needing to specifically focus
on them. Like automatically reordering cereal, or unlocking your phone when
you get close, or adjusting the temperature when you leave the house.

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laughinghan
This is an interesting take on fantasy UIs. I'm even more interested, though,
in truly visionary interfaces that make these handwavy, holo-touchscreeny UIs
seem timid by comparison:
[http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesi...](http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesign/)

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Animats
In VR, you can simulate any fantasy user interface. Have any good ones
appeared from the Oculus Rift / Vive crowd yet?

Yes, Tilt Brush.

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eprime
I enjoyed looking at some of the interfaces developed to interact with scripts
in SecondLife - often they had animations that hooked into the avatar to
perform, to give feedback. However most appeared to draw their inspiration
from cyberpunk, rather than science fiction or showing new interfaces.

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ta834939874
reddit has a sub for this community at reddit.com/r/fui

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yxlx
Very good article. I also enjoyed the inclusion of a demo reel to break it up
a bit so it's not all just text.

