The readings provided for this week gives an interesting reflection on the current state of Interaction Design and what lies ahead. Contrary to the rant given by the author, I do believe (at least in a sense) that technologies that follows the design of “Picture under glass” can be both helpful and intuitive, but when used something else is lost: The human feedback.
In my daily life, the only touchscreen-based device that I use exclusively is my iPhone. The rest is through other physical mediums, such as keyboards and mouse. The key difference in them is that some can provide a greater level of feedback than the other, while still providing giving the same function. A book in a iPad is still going to display what I want to read, but the smell, the feel, the weight, and the feeling of possession are lost.
It is a bit sad how we are also seeing our society shift from a more human feedback to what it seems to be more robotic and productive. Take into consideration Microsoft’s “Productivity Future Vision”, a future where productivity reigns over the interactional design that fills the human being with the necessary non-visual feedback that tells the current state of the object. Regardless of this. Nevertheless, by raising awareness (as the author indicates) we can make sure that we still value projects that aim for the user to be more in touch with the inner-self; in control through the use of sensory cues other than the sense that one gets from touching a glass touch.