Realistic Desktop UI Research Project - BumpTop
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Orcrist wrote:
And you're probably right. Not in my lifetime though.
why?
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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I recognize that this isn't new, but nevertheless it is an interesting concept. I dont envision this type of desktop (or something similar) actually working for 10+ years but I believe that it will eventually evolve into something of this nature. Why? 1. Currently the Windows gui (not the OS) is structured on the concept of Applications. Just ask yourself how counter intuitive this is. When I am working a typical day I am working with a Drawing document, Programming Document, Letter Document, etc. It just so happens that these run within AutoCad, VS, and Word, but that is just the wrapper. I am working the document. 2. Everyone has their own way of organizing things that makes them work to their (hopefully) best capabilities. Yet we currently have to operate within the constraints of the Windows / Mac / Linux operating systems. For example I know one person that uses a grid system to manage workload (X - Axis being Importance and Y-Axis being Urgency). He uses a whiteboard. But imagine you move documents into your own grid system right on the desktop. What if the future computer systems were in fact a full size rigid LCD screen style desk structure (3'x5') where you could have multiple screens/OS up at the same time and you drag/throw them on the desktop (aka Minority Report). The point is that we should not constrain our vision by our desire to remain in our own comfort zone (while this is perfectly human nature). For example the youth today use Instant Messaging in ways that I would have found hard to believe even 10 years ago while I myself refrain because I still see it as a huge inconvenience and waste of time. I am a dinosaur in some ways but advanced in others. Or look at cel phone usage compared to a few years ago. It's nuts. Stating that it just doesnt work now, doesnt mean you fold the tent and go home. The process is evolving and this example is just one possible direction that the future desktop (perhaps literally). Keep in mind that this is a working prototype using todays tools. There is a lot of exciting things on the horizon. As a parallel, if you dont know much about Nanotechnology you should do some research on it. You will see what I mean. Cheers, David
Orcrist wrote:
Currently the Windows gui (not the OS) is structured on the concept of Applications. Just ask yourself how counter intuitive this is.
Did they make driving cars like riding a horse. Just how counter intuative must that shift have been. People had been riding horses for thousands of years and then someone comes along and invents the car and doesn't even make it like riding a horse - how thoughtless of them!
Orcrist wrote:
When I am working a typical day I am working with a Drawing document, Programming Document, Letter Document, etc. It just so happens that these run within AutoCad, VS, and Word, but that is just the wrapper. I am working the document.
Microsoft tried this with Microsoft Office Binder - It didn't work.
Orcrist wrote:
Everyone has their own way of organizing things that makes them work to their (hopefully) best capabilities. Yet we currently have to operate within the constraints of the Windows / Mac / Linux operating systems.
My preferred way of doing things is to spread things out so everything is open at the position that I want it. This is impossible because I have to work within the confines of my desk.
Orcrist wrote:
For example I know one person that uses a grid system to manage workload (X - Axis being Importance and Y-Axis being Urgency). He uses a whiteboard. But imagine you move documents into your own grid system right on the desktop.
Well, lay your documents across windows desktop like that if you want - there isn't anything stopping you.
Orcrist wrote:
The point is that we should not constrain our vision by our desire to remain in our own comfort zone
Exactly - Now stop whining and learn how to use Windows! ;P
Orcrist wrote:
For example the youth today use Instant Messaging in ways that I would have found hard to believe even 10 years ago while I myself refrain because I still see it as a huge inconvenience and waste of time.
That is because it is a waste of time. 90% of all instant messages are "LOL" - What a waste of bandwidth that is! You are obviously not in the right demographic for that. It is nothing to do with technical ability or vision.
O
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Orcrist wrote:
Currently the Windows gui (not the OS) is structured on the concept of Applications. Just ask yourself how counter intuitive this is.
Did they make driving cars like riding a horse. Just how counter intuative must that shift have been. People had been riding horses for thousands of years and then someone comes along and invents the car and doesn't even make it like riding a horse - how thoughtless of them!
Orcrist wrote:
When I am working a typical day I am working with a Drawing document, Programming Document, Letter Document, etc. It just so happens that these run within AutoCad, VS, and Word, but that is just the wrapper. I am working the document.
Microsoft tried this with Microsoft Office Binder - It didn't work.
Orcrist wrote:
Everyone has their own way of organizing things that makes them work to their (hopefully) best capabilities. Yet we currently have to operate within the constraints of the Windows / Mac / Linux operating systems.
My preferred way of doing things is to spread things out so everything is open at the position that I want it. This is impossible because I have to work within the confines of my desk.
Orcrist wrote:
For example I know one person that uses a grid system to manage workload (X - Axis being Importance and Y-Axis being Urgency). He uses a whiteboard. But imagine you move documents into your own grid system right on the desktop.
Well, lay your documents across windows desktop like that if you want - there isn't anything stopping you.
Orcrist wrote:
The point is that we should not constrain our vision by our desire to remain in our own comfort zone
Exactly - Now stop whining and learn how to use Windows! ;P
Orcrist wrote:
For example the youth today use Instant Messaging in ways that I would have found hard to believe even 10 years ago while I myself refrain because I still see it as a huge inconvenience and waste of time.
That is because it is a waste of time. 90% of all instant messages are "LOL" - What a waste of bandwidth that is! You are obviously not in the right demographic for that. It is nothing to do with technical ability or vision.
O
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
Microsoft tried this with Microsoft Office Binder - It didn't work.
AFAIK, OS/2 tried it in the Workplace Shell before Office took a stab at it, and it worked reasonably well (as well as anything worked...). Win95 took a half-hearted stab at making file associations more than just a convenience thing, but as usual MS overengineered the technical side of things (try whipping up a full-featured OLE document server from scratch and getting it to work right the first time), while underplaying the UI side of things (once a document is open, it acts just like a plain old file you'd opened via some old app's File menu). IMHO, this is the most salvageable idea of the lot, since the metaphor (one or more "tools" that are used on a single "object") is one that actually has transfered from RL. Then again, i'm saying this as a programmer, by definition a tool-maker. Doubtless there are plenty of users for whom Word is the computer, and the idea that a computer might become (much less "contain") multiple tools is utterly beyond comprehension... Of course, expecting a company that makes its money selling Software to actually work towards making the act of using Software a transparent part of working is quite laughable... But it's fun to talk about anyway. ;)
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Last modified: Mond
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This is a research project for possible future Desktops. Very cool if you ask me. Check it out. (Use the Norway mirror the main WMV link appears to have problems). http://honeybrown.ca/Pubs/BumpTop.html[^] Enjoy, David
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*rubs hands, as when people do when they think of something they like*;P
rara avis in terris
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Orcrist wrote:
Currently the Windows gui (not the OS) is structured on the concept of Applications. Just ask yourself how counter intuitive this is.
Did they make driving cars like riding a horse. Just how counter intuative must that shift have been. People had been riding horses for thousands of years and then someone comes along and invents the car and doesn't even make it like riding a horse - how thoughtless of them!
Orcrist wrote:
When I am working a typical day I am working with a Drawing document, Programming Document, Letter Document, etc. It just so happens that these run within AutoCad, VS, and Word, but that is just the wrapper. I am working the document.
Microsoft tried this with Microsoft Office Binder - It didn't work.
Orcrist wrote:
Everyone has their own way of organizing things that makes them work to their (hopefully) best capabilities. Yet we currently have to operate within the constraints of the Windows / Mac / Linux operating systems.
My preferred way of doing things is to spread things out so everything is open at the position that I want it. This is impossible because I have to work within the confines of my desk.
Orcrist wrote:
For example I know one person that uses a grid system to manage workload (X - Axis being Importance and Y-Axis being Urgency). He uses a whiteboard. But imagine you move documents into your own grid system right on the desktop.
Well, lay your documents across windows desktop like that if you want - there isn't anything stopping you.
Orcrist wrote:
The point is that we should not constrain our vision by our desire to remain in our own comfort zone
Exactly - Now stop whining and learn how to use Windows! ;P
Orcrist wrote:
For example the youth today use Instant Messaging in ways that I would have found hard to believe even 10 years ago while I myself refrain because I still see it as a huge inconvenience and waste of time.
That is because it is a waste of time. 90% of all instant messages are "LOL" - What a waste of bandwidth that is! You are obviously not in the right demographic for that. It is nothing to do with technical ability or vision.
O
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
Did they make driving cars like riding a horse. Just how counter intuative must that shift have been. People had been riding horses for thousands of years and then someone comes along and invents the car and doesn't even make it like riding a horse - how thoughtless of them!
I agree to a certain extent. However the basic premise is that both are a mode of transport that move you from place to place. As does a plane, train, etc. Funny how each of them involve the process of sitting on your ass while something moves you. Implementation is just different. I would not advocate a virtual desktop with real papers taped to the screen [excuse me while I take my Post-Its off my screen].
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
Microsoft tried this with Microsoft Office Binder - It didn't work.
An idea with potential but poorly implemented and replaced with a better implementation (Embedded documents).
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
Well, lay your documents across windows desktop like that if you want - there isn't anything stopping you.
Not really true. At best it is a rather haphazard way of achieving this. (i.e drag and drop a shortcut from explorer) and how do you neatly stack the pile of tasks. Hmm. cant do that just yet... And besides. My Post-Its cover the shortcuts. :)
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
Exactly - Now stop whining and learn how to use Windows!
:wtf: Wow, I'll err on the side of caution and read into the smiley face that it was intended as a sarcastic comment and not an insult... David
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This is a research project for possible future Desktops. Very cool if you ask me. Check it out. (Use the Norway mirror the main WMV link appears to have problems). http://honeybrown.ca/Pubs/BumpTop.html[^] Enjoy, David
It is very cool, thanks for posting it. One reason why I really like stuff like this is that I've used Opera for years and the mouse gestures feature is so easy and so quickly ingrained that I keep accidentally doing it in IE and other programs. If more apps used a standardized set of mouse gestures it would definitely make life easier working on the computer.
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This is a research project for possible future Desktops. Very cool if you ask me. Check it out. (Use the Norway mirror the main WMV link appears to have problems). http://honeybrown.ca/Pubs/BumpTop.html[^] Enjoy, David
Looks like it's Windows Meets Mahjong. :-D
Jeremy Falcon
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Because I am too busy to build it myself. Seriously though it probably has more to do with being in my 40's already. You never know though, perhaps I "might" see it (assuming my vision holds...).
Orcrist wrote:
Seriously though it probably has more to do with being in my 40's already.
uhmmm... hmmm.... I am born in '65. :laugh: I do interactive 3D immersive graphics all the time. I haven't done virtual hands, but I have flown a virtual airplane and had real cameras track me and insert computer images of my plane into their videos. Augmented reality is fun, even in your 40's. :laugh:
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Hate to break the news, but this isn't new. Every few years, some graduate student discovers the next break through in UI design and they always end up looking just like this with variations according to the latest graphical design fad. None of them work. I'm not saying this just be cynical, they really don't work. This mistake is assuming that a good UI mimics the real world. It doesn't. Perhaps the funniest example of this was a quite serious UI design that made your desktop look like a real cluttered desk. (Even more than this one.) A bigger mistake is too many graphical designers who think they understand usability and human factors. In reality, all they're really doing is creating things that look cool. The most extreme example of this were the amazingly cool, but almost unusable, add-ons for Adobe Photoshop in the late mid to late 90s. (In my experience, graphical designers actually make worse usability experts than developers. The best usability people have degrees in pyschology and have extensive training in human factors and industrial design.)
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
Did they make driving cars like riding a horse. Just how counter intuative must that shift have been. People had been riding horses for thousands of years and then someone comes along and invents the car and doesn't even make it like riding a horse - how thoughtless of them!
I agree to a certain extent. However the basic premise is that both are a mode of transport that move you from place to place. As does a plane, train, etc. Funny how each of them involve the process of sitting on your ass while something moves you. Implementation is just different. I would not advocate a virtual desktop with real papers taped to the screen [excuse me while I take my Post-Its off my screen].
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
Microsoft tried this with Microsoft Office Binder - It didn't work.
An idea with potential but poorly implemented and replaced with a better implementation (Embedded documents).
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
Well, lay your documents across windows desktop like that if you want - there isn't anything stopping you.
Not really true. At best it is a rather haphazard way of achieving this. (i.e drag and drop a shortcut from explorer) and how do you neatly stack the pile of tasks. Hmm. cant do that just yet... And besides. My Post-Its cover the shortcuts. :)
Colin Angus Mackay wrote:
Exactly - Now stop whining and learn how to use Windows!
:wtf: Wow, I'll err on the side of caution and read into the smiley face that it was intended as a sarcastic comment and not an insult... David
Orcrist wrote:
I'll err on the side of caution and read into the smiley face that it was intended as a sarcastic comment and not an insult
That's what the smilie was for. It was a jokey comment.
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I don't see how having piles of documents on a virtual desk is a step forward, Saying to my computer, "Find me the memo I received a week last Thursday from my boss that showed the new plans for the cubicle layout on floor seventy" is more practical I want to let the computer find things for me, not me having to "virtually" organise my desk.
Michael CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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Reminds me of Micro$oft Bob[^] :laugh:
Wout
Yeah, I was thinking about the same thing. Over the decades people have tried to make computer use to mimic real world use...
Rocky <>< Latest Code Blog Post: ASP.NET HttpException - Cannot use leading "..".. Latest Tech Blog Post: Anti-Spam idea - Help!
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I don't see how having piles of documents on a virtual desk is a step forward, Saying to my computer, "Find me the memo I received a week last Thursday from my boss that showed the new plans for the cubicle layout on floor seventy" is more practical I want to let the computer find things for me, not me having to "virtually" organise my desk.
Michael CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]