My initial impression regarding the”Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design” reading was that it was formatted in a very engaging way. As someone with ADHD, I tend to read long paragraphs a lot slower than individual sentences structured this way; this made me trust in the credibility of the author’s perspective on interaction design.
The way the author transitions from explaining the importance of touch to the complete lack of it in our touchscreen technology was really done, and I couldn’t agree more. Using touchscreens is really un-stimulating, and if anyone who has tried texting without haptics will know it feels incredibly unresponsive– but that also seems to be the future we’re headed towards. The images Bret Victor chooses to accompany his texts are hilarious too; there really aren’t many things we naturally need our hands to swipe on other than manmade touchscreens. Victor’s explanation of how humans naturally transition between grip-styles is pretty interesting to me too.
This reading gave me a lot to think about. One of the things that came to mind was the experience of using a controller versus mouse & keyboard when playing video games. For those unaware, let me explain the main differences between the two.
When you use a controller (or gamepad as some call it), you’re primarily using your thumbs for everything from the analog sticks to the surface-buttons. Using just your thumb to control your camera controls can be quite difficult if precise and delicate movements are required.
When you use a keyboard and mouse, your arm and wrist are capable of microadjustments while holding the mouse to input much more precise and delicate movements; not to mention your keyboard hand is using way more than just your thumb to control what’s happening on screen.
So going by what I’ve said, many would probably wonder why anyone would ever use a controller, but that’s the thing– I haven’t explained the one thing that makes this remotely a difficult decision.
Controllers give an extra layer of immersion by both letting the user relax their arms and lean back, but also provide the user with haptic feedback and vibrations in response to what’s happening in-game. Imagine you’re playing a game where explosions are involved– the controller would vibrate violently in your hands as explosions affect your character. This is why you turn to keyboard and mouse for precision but controllers for immersion.
Now onto Victor’s follow-up article– I thought his response to voice was pretty amusing, “I have a hard time imagining Monet saying to his canvas, “Give me some water lilies. Make ’em impressionistic.” It’s amusing because that’s literally how our modern generation approaches stuff they don’t know how to do.
One other thing that really caught my attention in the follow-up was this quote, “The density of nerve endings in our fingertips is enormous. Their discrimination is almost as good as that of our eyes. If we don’t use our fingers, if in childhood and youth we become “finger-blind”, this rich network of nerves is impoverished.” I wonder if late-gen Z and gen alpha have any indicators of finger blindness as so many of us grew up with touchscreen devices as our main source of entertainment.
