x
- More +
The aim of a good interface for any piece of hardware or software is to provide quick, easy and intuitive access to a wealth of information. Often interfaces are designed as the front end for a product that a company hopes to sell, or might even be used to facilitate browsing and purchasing – so […]
The aim of a good interface for any piece of hardware or software is to provide quick, easy and intuitive access to a wealth of information. Often interfaces are designed as the front end for a product that a company hopes to sell, or might even be used to facilitate browsing and purchasing – so it is in the best interests of those designing it and commissioning it that it be as universally simple as possible.
But while designers can sometimes get quite creative when it comes to creating their GUIs, they will almost always unfortunately be working within existing paradigms. We are used to interacting with technology in a certain way, and the hardware that we rely on only makes certain forms of input possible.
That paradigm is of course the ‘mouse and keyboard’ which is the predominant way that most of us still access the web and interact with software. Of course this has gradually started to change though over the last five years or so as we’ve seen a move towards more hand-held and touchscreen devices.
Already we’ve seen how this has transformed our use of technology – with more and more people now being able to understand how to get online and find the information they want thanks simply to this easier method of input.
But it’s still not for everyone. While most of us can use a touchscreen relatively easily, it still requires us to have one or both hands free and able, and it still requires good sight, coordination and intuitive grasp of the technology.
A perfect interface then that might someday supplant even the mighty touchscreen, would be one that was even more universal and that enabled absolutely everyone to interact with their technology no matter where they were – even when those people are not fully able.
This might sound far-fetched, but in fact it’s something we’re already very much working towards, and right now a battle is waging right under our noses to see which will become the dominant new form of input.
Motion controls for instance are something that have become rapidly more popular over the last few years thanks mostly to the increased capability of the hardware we’re using. The Wii first popularised this and indeed found many fans among Mothers and other people who might not normally play computer games.
This didn’t go unnoticed by Microsoft, who promptly released their ‘Kinect’ controller for the Xbox 360 to mixed success. That was only the first step however, with the new Kinect due to launch with the Xbox One promising to be vastly more powerful – even able to monitor your heart rate by looking for tiny fluctuations in your skin colour. This could well be the control system that ushers in a new age of even more intuitive interfaces, and many games are already taking advantage of the technology in unique ways: even allowing players to toggle settings by tapping their head while playing otherwise controller-based games.
Motion control doesn’t just mean using your arms to gesture wildly though, it can also be much more subtle and amazing image analysis algorithms allow devices like the Samsung
Galaxy S4 to even pick up on subtle head nods to know when to scroll down the page.
Another popular option is voice control, which if implemented flawlessly would have the distinct advantage of allowing you to keep your hands completely free and to interact with your devices just as you would interact with people in your day to day life. Perhaps the best known implementation of this kind of control scheme is with Siri – the ‘virtual assistant’ that resides in the iPhone and allows users to check the weather or the time, to hear a joke or to get directions and more without even looking up.
Dragon Naturally speaking is a piece of software that aims to allow users to dictate entire essays and articles simply by speaking into a microphone, but unfortunately it isn’t quite there yet – providing only a second-best alternative for those who can’t type rather than a more-intuitive system of writing that everyone might want to use.
But the time will come when your computer knows what it is you want to do even before you do, and then everyone will be able to use them.
Author Bio:
This article has been authored by John Pellet. John is a designer at Freedom Lift Systems, leading manufacturer of handicap lift systems. In his spare time, John likes to paint and play with his dogs, Ajax and Achilles.
