“Although computers have become cheaper, more capable and more commonplace, they have made much less progress when it comes to ease of use”.
“Part of the problem is that programmers have traditionally had more power than designers. Programmers put in place the myriad features they want; interface designers then struggle to wrap them all in a product that is simple to use. The results, all too often, are clunky interfaces”.
Designing better graphic interfaces, meaning ones that are adaptive and allow for a more intuitive and personalized use is a step in the right direction. In parallel, more capable and responsive multimedia devices are also needed, as well as well integrated applications taking advantage of these technologies.
Since a fair amount of what we do involves being online and interacting with others, there is also a need for understanding where the web is headed. Additionally, a number users are becoming more sophisticated:
“A big trend we are seeing now is tools as content (…) across the board with the amount of time people are spending on YouTube and Facebook making user created content (…) more and more people are looking for the tools themselves to be the content”.
Glenn Entis, Chief Visual Officer at Electronic Arts.
All of these things actually matter in the context of ubiquitous computing and the implied freedom that comes from becoming fully mobile, as user friendliness also means neither being entangled by wires nor tied to a given physical location.
There is a fair amount of research going on seeking to understand whether immersive environments allow for exposing and interacting with large amounts of information more efficiently. This is sometimes related to 3D browsing in virtual online worlds as well as combining live video feeds with augmented reality.
In some other cases, the focus is on innovative ways of leveraging large displays. As an example, A few months ago I shared a list of today’s ”Minority Report GUIs“ such as: Microsoft’s Surface, EON Touchlight, Perceptive Pixel’s advanced multitouch system. The same post includes a clip of the actual sci-fi movie which back in 2002 helped us visualize this kind of HCI, human computer interaction. Have a look at this video of the ”sensitive wall” from Naturalinteraction.
As part of the above list, I would also like to mention Heliodisplay’s mid-air projector and Accenture’s wall size high def interactive screen. Last month, Siggraph’s “Best Emerging Technologies Award” went to USC’s Institute for Creative Technology in collaboration Fake Space Labs, Sony Corporation, and USC School of Cinematic Arts for the Interactive 360-Degree Light Field Display, which delivers 3D images resembling holograms by means of a fast spinning mirror which allows users to see the images without any kind of headgear:
When thinking of today’s consumer market, Apple has incorporated multitouch technology in the iPhone and, nonetheless, the company is able to charge a premium for its products thanks to its user friendly and elegant designs. There is a variety of mobile devices following that trend which are now available to the public. Microsoft is also putting greater emphasis on interface design, note that a quarter of their budget at their research lab in Cambridge goes into HCI these days. Surface, Popfly and Photosynth are clear signs of Microsoft’s interest in enabling new user experiences.
“Although computers have become cheaper, more capable and more commonplace, they have made much less progress when it comes to ease of use”.
“Their potential remains tantalizingly out of reach for people who find their control systems or ‘user interfaces’, too complex. And even people who have no difficulty in navigating menus, dialogue boxes and so on, might use computers more productively if their interfaces were better”.
“Ease of use is one area where technology firms can differentiate themselves and gain competitive advantage”.
Chicago, 23 October 07 
