Jef Raskin's Humane Interface Released

cold wolf writes "With a new site layout and information, the Raskin Center has also just released Archy (formally known at The Humane Interface). It is currently in Alpha phase and Windows only, as an executable."

Comments

Trying it out now

[snorklewacker]

First impressions: really awful.

Forward and back arrows do what you expect. Up and down scroll the screen. Page up and down do nothing.

The mouse, of course, does nothing at all.

Keys you expect to repeat don't. That triple-tap thing holds firm for everything. Even backspace. Even the arrow keys.

Tildes and backticks are impossible to type, they've become control characters.

The cursor blinks frantically and distractingly in not one, but two colors.

To access help, you have to hold down capslock while you type.

I stopped there. Guess it needs a little more time in the oven, but so far it's flying in the face of usability.

Re:Trying it out now

[TuringTest]

First impressions: really awful.
I find it different, but really interesting. Much better that any other GUI used only with keyboard. *Those* are awful.


# Forward and back arrows do what you expect. Up and down scroll the screen. Page up and down do nothing.
I wrote to Brad Lauster just two days ago on this very point, and he was quite open to commentary. Main movement is supposed to be done through text search, but maybe page up/down will be implemented. Remember that this is in very alpha stage.


# The mouse, of course, does nothing at all.
The mouse will be used for graphic manipulation and navigation in the zooming interface. For text processing, it uses the keyboard. This is the main point that makes habit forming possible.


# Keys you expect to repeat don't. That triple-tap thing holds firm for everything. Even backspace. Even the arrow keys.
All keys do repeat, thank you very much. You have to tap it three times, not press and wait until it repeats. This avoids the error of having autorepeat when you don't want it, and is faster when you do.


# Tildes and backticks are impossible to type, they've become control characters.
This program is a prototype. The final product is suposed to run under dedicated hardware (a special keyboard). Afaik- there is a USB "LeapBar" extension for current keyboards.


# The cursor blinks frantically and distractingly in not one, but two colors.
Maybe you could file a usability bug report? This project is being user-tested. If it is annoying, it will be removed.


# To access help, you have to hold down capslock while you type.
The LeapBar will have a dedicated Command key.
With the zooming interface you could simply "zoom out" until you see the Help section.
And yes, the textual interface is designed for good typists - that's not strange, since it's supposed for advanced text manipulation.


I stopped there. Guess it needs a little more time in the oven, but so far it's flying in the face of usability.
No, its only strange because you have to learn it from scratch. Is not more difficult than a current WIMP "point-and-click" interface is for novice users. Actually it's easier - more consistent, more simple, you don't have to think what you want to do in advance.