Usability in the Movies -- Top 10 Bloopers

Ant writes "A UseIt.com article talks about user interfaces (UIs) in film that are more exciting than they are realistic, and heroes have far too easy a time using foreign systems. The way Hollywood depicts usability could fill many a blooper reel. Here are 10 of the most egregious mistakes made by moviemakers. From the article: '3. The 3D UI - In Minority Report, the characters operate a complex information space by gesturing wildly in the space in front of their screens. As Tog found when filming Starfire, it's very tiring to keep your arms in the air while using a computer. Gestures do have their place, but not as the primary user interface for office systems.'"

Comments

#10?

[mar1no]

Leaving aside the plausibility of a 12-year-old knowing Unix, simply knowing Unix is not enough to immediately use any application running on the system. Yes, she could probably have used vi on the security terminal. But the specialized security system would have required some learning time -- significant learning time if it were built on Unix, which has notoriously inconsistent user interface design and thus makes it harder to transfer skills from one application to the next.

This guy didn't do his research. It wasn't that specialized of a security system.

http://fsv.sourceforge.net/

Re:How it should work

[syzler]

The way it works in the movies is the way it should work. Log in, type "find Kyoto meeting minutes", a bunch of matrix-ish characters scroll across the screen, and there it is.

I guess you don't use OS X. Apple aready has this feature, it is called Spotlight. Commnad-Space &ltsaerch term&gt and OS X will provide a list of matching files based on Meta data and file contents. Okay, it is missing the matrix style characters, but it is close.

Re:Linux

[innocent_white_lamb]

You can find it right here: http://fsv.sourceforge.net/