The Next Computer Interface

BoarderPhreak was among the several readers who pointed out "an interesting article on the various alternatives to storing your files using a 'desktop' metaphor" at TechReview.com. "New styles like time-indexing, 3D sphere ala SGI's file manager, and even a 3D virtual 'task gallery' from Microsoft. Screenshots available in the article." All of these have been floating around for a while; hopefully soon some radically different interfaces will actually gain widespread acceptance.

Comments

Great site for this stuff

[LinuxParanoid]

There's a great Slash-based site with loads of articles examining potential next-gen interfaces. Not a huge amount of traffic yet, but the editor seems to be consistently putting up new articles. Check out Nooface.

--LP

What I Use For General Navigation Stuff

[citizenc]

When it comes to organizing my files/folder/shortcuts, I very rarelu use the Start Menu. Instead, I've been using The Brain, which treats documents, programs, shortcuts, program groups, etc as "thoughts" which you can link to any other thought. Pretty cool.

Not another one!

[Stephen]

We seem to have an article about a replacement for the desktop about once every week or two. The feeling I get is that there are developers all over the world developing these things, presumably hoping to strike a gold mine.

And yet none of them have taken off. Why's that? Maybe (heretical thought!) it's because the current model actually works quite well for most people.

I don't want a system where the computer organises things for me. I can organise them better myself. (Occasionally I might lose something, but probably less often than if the computer was filing stuff for me. Anyway, we have good 'find' tools on Windows and Unix.)

I don't want a 3-D interface. It's much harder to visualise and navigate than a 2-D one. (A set of 2-D interfaces, as in Mozilla's tabbed browsing or many window managers' virtual desktops, is good. This is perhaps one of the real UI advances in recent years. Windows could do with virtual desktops.)

The article says: "Conceivably, an inference engine can be made so intelligent that [...] machines would automatically present information to you as you need it." Well, maybe when that's true I'll change my mind.

Any ideas for a better 'Clippy'

[Ami Ganguli]

The article mentions how annoying Clippy is, but says that MS researchers still think a 'helpful' interface is a good idea if done properly. Can anybody think of a good way to do this without it becoming annoying?

One thing that I really hate about those little characters is that they get in the way and take control of the computer away from me. But what if a little box on the task bar showed the three 'most likely' things you wanted to do and you could activate them (complete with little wizards if the task is complex) by clicking?

VI

[Martin S.]

Voice interaction is a classic example of something that can be thought of as "cool" until you have an open plan office with 30 people talking at their computers.

I agree about offices, the technology to make voice interfaces work is here today, but the applications is not, however but Voice Interfaces offers a lot of potential for much more personal environments, like the car home & SOHO.

VI offers a number of advantages over conventional interfaces, biomentric security, easy of use & accessability, even for your technophobic mother/granny.

Imagine a home entertainment gateway accessed by voice, no worries about little Johnny snooping your adult PIN. The inherent Biometric security, will make no difference, if he overhears your PIN.

Imagine re-tuning you IP Radio Alarm, by voice, without opening your eyes.

Imagine switching off your security alarm, by saying 'Hello House', and then following up it up with the query "Messages?" without having to log in and remember your password.

Or change channels without having to figure out which of those six seperate remote you need to use, simply by saying 'TV, select channel 4', or 'TV, News' or any number of other scenarios.

I think the killer application for VI is Home Automation.

Re:Some ideas

[G-funk]

These are all interesting ideas, except for the a few things:

1. Computers organise things hierachically because we like it that way. We haven't been conditioned into it by computers. Remember the game where you pick a number between 1 and 100 and somebody tells you higher or lower? Remember how much easier it was when you learned to start in the middle? It's the nature of things.

2. 98% of the time, you don't need to "search", if you organise things properly. No matter how great the search is, it's always going to be more efficient if you stick things in relevant folders (/documents/biz/2000-2001/invoice110.doc)

Personally, I think the biggest problem with the wimp interface is modal windows (this should not happen ever ever ever amen), and a decent way to keep track of more than 10 open windows/programs.