September 6, 2005
HCI, GUIs, and Google
Link – Anonymous Usability Designer: Top 8 Reasons HCI is in its Stone Age
This is a good writeup. I’ve been thinking for a while that if I had to pick one specific computer-related field to go into, it’d be HCI (human-computer interaction). It seemed to me that there was a whole lot of work to be done in the field and I guess other people have been thinking the same thing. Aside from a whole lot of work, I think it’ll take a miracle to create something new that developers will actually want to use. Don’t other’s feel this way? Aren’t you mad when you expect your computer to do something and it does the complete opposite, thereby creating more work as you have to go back and correct it? I like using linux because it lets you customize how each and every part works. If you don’t like how menus work, heck, write your own. Of course, the system won’t know how to work with your new menus so it might break quite easily. Deviating from standards frequently results in chaos.
I applaud Google (regrettably, as I see more and more things in them that I don’t like) for their interface designs. If you’ve used Google Talk, you’ll know what I’m talking about next. If not, well just follow along. “Talk” has a minimalist interface with only the necessities. What more could you need but the names of your buddies and their current status. One click on a buddy name pops up a window with the most recent communications you have had with that buddy (names are shortened to first name only, unless you have the same first name, in which case the full name is displayed). Windows can roll up automatically if too many are being displayed or manually if you just want to see the buddy’s name and most recent statement. By default, the message windows are also stuck together so your taskbar isn’t filled up with all the people you’re talking to. I’ll stop here because there’s many more features that I enjoy but I don’t want to lose the focus… too much.
Graphics, speed, memory, hard drives, etc have all been given ample attention while technology is advancing. One thing that is left by the wayside is how we interact with this technology. Just like in the entertainment industry (especially games), no matter how much technology is thrown into it, the story seems to be a rehash of last year’s big hits (or new ideas so obscure that no one understands them).
Hopefully things will settle down a bit and in addition to a better computer, we’ll have a better way to use it.
