Our new stove is really fancy. Buttons, knobs, blinking lights: it's got it all. My only issue is that the buttons are behind glass and just "sense" your finger (from heat I assume). There's about a second lag from putting your finger on the button to getting feedback. I used these buttons a lot for the first time yesterday and I found it a little frustrating and it was making my fingers sore. I was pushing the buttons which is totally useless. It's like pushing on a window.
I'm a huge fan of control interfaces with buttons that push, knobs that turn. All of which "click". It's really nice to get both the "touch" as well as the sound part of the feedback that what you've done has registered rather than just seeing the feedback on a screen.
Our microwave has a knob that pops out that you can spin it to set the time. I almost always use that to set the controls. There's just something satisfying about using that.
I've seen a laser keyboard interface where it projects a keyboard on a table and you're supposed to type on that. After the initial "cool" factor, I'd guess that would be a painful, gross way to type in. Not fun at all.
Give me buttons that push, knobs that twirl, levers that turn / pull. That's what I want in a computer interface.
Star Trek TNG was all glass-top touch screens, maybe designers are moving toward that future? :)
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean one piece jump suits are the future too? *shudder*
ReplyDeleteI remember reading once that the idea behind those controls in TNG was so that the "interfaces could be updated dynamically". I really think that it's so that they have a quick answer for when a nerd writes to complaining on 2 different shows they were supposed to do the same action but the actor didn't touch the interface in the same way.
If they could design an interface that would be dynamic by changing into different levers / knobs / buttons, *that* would be the future. ;-D