Whither The Next User Interface?
by
Randy Mears
Major breakthroughs in user interfaces have been few and far between. Historically the command line interface was the first to give us a practical man-machine dialogue. The text based interface followed and improved on the command line by supporting the concept of forms (fields in context). The next major step was the Graphical User Interface, which is also the current preferred one for most of us. Computers aren’t people so we shouldn’t expect to interact with them using the same “inefficient” methods that we use to communicate with each other; or should we?
The truth is that human communications techniques are often actually very efficient, especially when you include facial expressions, body language and voice inflection. We know intuitively that these things, properly integrated with both new and existing user interface components, have the potential to give us the best of both worlds. We often discuss these things but the fact is that we have seen little commercial progress in getting there.
Enter the multiple finger touch screen, called “Surface” recently announced by Microsoft. Though it is an evolutionary idea, it may be a big enough step to mark a new beginning for user interface design and implementation. I think it may be nearly as important a stepping stone as the mouse once was. Granted there are more sophisticated interfaces currently in R&D, but "Surface" will be a product this year. Though it may seem inspired by the holographic interface from the movie “Minority Report” there isn’t much real similarity; such science fiction movie interfaces are too grand a goal to achieve in a single step. As tiny steps go, the touch pad and touch screen may have been the beginning of this one. Ideas like placing two fingers on a touchpad and in an up, down, left, right or diagonal motion as a means of scrolling have been in place for a few years. Even so, they are a far cry from what “Surface” promises, but a start none-the-less.
Credit where credit is due, Microsoft deserves kudos on this, particularly if it hits the market on schedule. A touch screen that reacts to and follows the location of multiple simultaneous touches, is a significant advancement that will, I expect, make a very big difference. Once it matures a little and reaches the right price point we should expect it to be rapidly adopted by both businesses and consumers.
