Ever notice that computers seem less innovative? Ever since the Mac first made the Desktop metaphor popular (and yes I know about Lisa and Alto) everyone else has been playing catch up. We get some pretty graphic effects or things like toolbars or docks but nothing really different.
The BumpTop Prototype is a new way to manipulate icons in the desktop metaphor. You owe it to yourself to watch the 7 min demo video. It seems tailored to a tablet computer to be use with a stylus. It's quite cool, though I'm not sure I'd want to use it. I am really happy someone is thinking about new ways to do things.
What I don't love about the demo is that it extends the desktop metaphor further to the real world. I found it bizarre to try to further emulate the messy desk. Computers offer ways to do things not tied to the boundaries of the real world. Why should a computer screen look like a desktop? Remember Michael Crichton's Disclosure? They were building a virtual reality infinitely long corridor filled with file cabinets that you could virtually walk through to find what you want. Replace a simple search with an endless walk, why would you want this? 40 years ago, in Star Trek, you just say what you want.
One of the reasons I love Quicksilver so much (sorry Mac-only) is that it replaces most of this garbage with just typing the name of something you want and some action you want to do to it. It's Star Trek with typing, but available today. No hunting through folders or menus or scrolling through tens or hundreds of icons looking for what you want. isn't this why Google (and search in general) is so popular these days? While browse has it's place, search is a lot faster.
No comments:
Post a Comment