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May 26, 2008
User Experience - As simple as possible but no simpler.
So in the context of the video scrubbing demo, I talked about the pattern of direct manipulation as a way of replacing cumbersome chrome with more natural navigation. Another blog post caught my eye today, that further reinforces this in an obvious manner - combining direct maniuplation with haptic interfaces of the like first unveiled by Jefferey Han at TED, a restricted form of which forms the touch-screen and touch-pad interfaces of the latest iPod and Macbooks.
So this demo from Colorado start-up Earthscape, shows how this concept of direct manipulation, of haptic interfaces and of the Wii inspired accelerometer-driven interfaces that can use pan and tilt of an actual device, to once again create a very natural navigation metaphor for a Google Earth like application.
You can see another video this on this YouTube clip here - a really nice blend of direct-manipulation, multi-touch gestures and accelerator-powered spatial navigation.
Again, I'm just fascinated at how layer upon layer of technical and algorithmic complexity surface to the user as a veneer of utter simplicity and usefulness. When something reaches an extreme, it truly must become it's opposite.
Posted by swebster at May 26, 2008 05:44 PM