iPad: Interface metaphors in 2010

Vale a pena reproduzir o que Lev Manovich (com os comentários) escreveu no Facebook nesta terça, 6, sobre iPad e a metáfora da interface: 

In the 1980s, GUI was justified using a simplistic idea that since computers are unfamiliar to people, we shoud help them by making interface “intuitive” by making it mimic something users are already well familiar with – the physical world outside of a computer (which in reality was an office environment with folders, desks, printers, etc.)

Surprisingly, even in 2010 – when “born digital” generations start using computer devices even before they ever set their feet in any office – this idea is still used to explain GUI.

For example, Apple iPhone Human Interface guidelines (March 2010) advise developers: “When possible, model your application’s objects and actions on objects and actions in the real world. This technique especially helps novice users quickly grasp how your application works. Folders are a classic software metaphor. People file things in folders in the real world, so they immediately understand the idea of putting data into folders on a computer.”

The irony of this statement is that these Interface guidelines are also aimed at the developers of iPad - which clearly represents yet another step in migration from the world of physical print to all-digital environment.

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Você e outras 6 pessoas curtiram isto.

Dean Terry 

Yes exactly. And how long until gestures such as those made on iPad and iPhone are considered "real world" ? Like all my students I do a lot more swiping and pinching than I do writing with pens, or putting things in real folders. (Actually I haven't put something in a physical folder in years.) When do we stop making these kinds of distinctions? ... Ver mais

Ontem às 02:10 · Denunciar

Christopher Head 

This is potentially terrible, but I'm going to just admit it: From a very early age, I have typed far, far more than I have ever written. I'm genuinely curious to see the generation that swipes more than they type more than they write.

Ontem às 02:59 · Denunciar

Isabel Löfgren 

the same can be said about the endurance of the qwerty keyboard. the office metaphor invented by susan kare in the early 80s still holds true because it became a convention (http://www.kare.com/portfolio/03_apple_macicons.html) . the calculator interface on the iphone looks just like Dieter Ram's Braun calculator from the 70s. you could even say ... Ver mais

Ontem às 04:28 · Denunciar

Christine Wilks 

Since the advent of tagging in particular, I find the folders metaphor is actually quite counter-intuitive. In fact, I'd go further - it's an obstructive metaphor. I use Evernote and recently I had to go through it and erase a whole bunch of useless 'folders' that were hiding content instead of helping me find it again.

Ontem às 07:22 · Denunciar

Pete Worrall 

As an artist (and perhaps a postscript to the above interesting comments)

I sometimes enjoy drawing with my ink pen, digtising a series of outcomes and creating a hybrid intermedia form (using software)... sometimes.. this is the tip of the iceberg for artists

Ontem às 12:22 · Denunciar

Filip Nowak 

yes, the idea to emulate office-like environment is extremely terrible, especially to people like me who have never worked in real office. I like more the idea of diving, surfing and grabbing things like you can see it in popular sci-fi movies like 'johny mnemonic' or learn from william gibson's books. GUI becomes there more physical, so U get some... Ver mais

Ontem às 14:54 · Denunciar

Tim Jaeger 

And it's still a rectangular screen. When do we get away from screens?

Ontem às 17:47 · Denunciar

Baruch Gottlieb 

I don't know, I will have to apply some Foucaultian Governmentality to this folder/desktop paradigm....

Ontem às 23:06 · Denunciar

Joachim Goßmann 

persistence

há 11 horas · Denunciar