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Usability in the Movies -- Top 10 Bloopers

Posted by Zonk on from the toomanysecrets dept.

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.'"

8 of 382 comments (clear)

  1. Ridiculous... by aendeuryu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ok ok, we get the point about the UI in Minority Report, but COME ON, it's not like it's the most implausible thing about the movie. Same with Star Trek... Oh yeah, a computer that speaks and understands English, that's weird. Fifteen space alien races we encounter for the first time that speak and understand English, TOTALLY NORMAL. A kid saving the day with a 3d unix interface. Yeah, that just totally ruined the whole movie for me, because up until that point I was totally believing in THE DINOSAURS...

    Methinks a bit of perspective is called for...

    1. Re:Ridiculous... by ScrewMaster · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, but on the other hand a glaring flaw in the depiction of a knowledge area with which you are familiar can detract from the experience. I'm sure there are many doctors and biomedical researchers that cringe every time they see movies about bioweapons and genetically-engineered mutant monsters.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    2. Re:Ridiculous... by aendeuryu · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But for the most part, these anomalies serve a purpose -- they help push the story forward, or at the very least keep it from getting pushed back. Consider this... every Slashdotter here is an expert when it comes to toilet use. Do we cry out in anger when an entire movie goes by and nobody uses the can? Of course not. It's just not important to the story, and I consider a character that never uses the facilities during the course of most movies' narrative timeframe to be a LOT more unrealistic than an overly flashy GUI.

      Movies, ESPECIALLY Hollywood sci-fi movies, aren't made primarily to be depictions of reality. Verisimilitude has its place, but not when it's going to slow down the narrative progress.

  2. What about enhance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't believe they left out the enhance functionality, making a someones face from twenty feet away appear crystal clear on a 320x240 ATM camera.

  3. Best movie usability scene ever. by greenguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Luke, you've switched off your targeting computer. What's wrong?"

    --
    What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
  4. Linux by oGMo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, far before Apple (by about a decade) making Unix available to the common man, there was Linux. What was funny about that then was the unlikelihood of a kid having access to a Unix system. What was even funnier a few years later (by 97 or 98) was the fact that it was no longer unlikely! Kids, even 12-year-olds, had access to Linux and were using it and learning it.

    Really, when I saw this one, I had to check the date on the article, because I thought it was quite old. The biggest examples of most of these are things like the first Mission Impossible, Independence Day, and as mentioned, Jurassic Park.

    --

    Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage

  5. User Interface? Minority Report. by noretsa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does anyone else question why we are taking user interface advice from a guy whose website looks like it was designed in notepad? The Minority Report user interface was actually designed by industry professionals at Microsoft Research, MIT, and Sun. These people all have a great pedigree in usability. The author suggests using a 3D interface is tiring but in the movie the police are required to parse through a large amount of 4-dimensional data in very short periods of time. This is because they need to stop the crime before it occurs. That interface is built around speed and control which is not something the critic considers. I find it ironic how the author derides gestural input while Slashdot has stories almost every day about how great that interface has worked for the Wii.

  6. Technical Difficulties Diversion? by yosofun · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Well... would you rather have a 2-hour extension to the original movie, wherein the actor is portrayed to "realistically" grope her way around the system while the dino-robo's are out loose?

    No, I wouldn't want to watch someone debug or "bond" with a difficult system either. I'd rather see the results.