There is a frustration that boils in my blood. That frustration is paper.
Not that paper itself is frustrating… but that every technology out there fails horribly in comparison to it.
An example: Paper requires no manual, yet anyone can use it. It doesn’t care that you use a red eraser instead of white. It doesn’t care that you signed with ink, tears or blood… and it doesn’t care that you don’t have a hand to type, because you can grip a pen in your teeth if need be.
Paper is a technology, and it’s use is fluid and intuitive… but modern technology, with it’s computational power and raw strength is like a body-builder who can’t stretch down, to pull his pants back up.
Interfaces Are My Frustration
I yearn for an interface more like a gymnast. With the bend of a Yogi, the stregth of an Ox… Seamless like water and with the power to carve new worlds.
I fear any design I make will be but a poor attempt. One day I see in my minds eye a keleidoscopic field of information, free-flowing into organised formation. I want access to everything… but not all at once. I want the freedom to be still with an idea, to take the time, to explore.
I feel that todays “User Interface” is a form of tortured design not seen elsewhere in reality.
I also have the sense that we must avoid the world of logic and labels, so strong in the Math heavy computational world. I sense the need to seek something more primitive
The Haze Of An Idea
I have close to my mind, the understanding that spatial memory makes some of the strongest memories we have.
- Why don’t our interfaces take advantage of this?
I have in mind, the understanding that humans are most effective single-tasking
- Why don’t our interfaces shut the hell up?
…and I have in mind, a small child on the carpet making painting with their hands… mum drawing with them. I see the sense of play and connection they have, with one piece of paper between them… and I wonder:
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When can technology be an extension of what makes us human?
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When can technology make it better to be a human?
…because right now, generations are being lost to screens. When I was born, a mobile phone came with a Suitcase for a battery. Just 28-years later, even my Grandad is glued to a tiny little device. He could be surrounded by loving people, but he doesn’t know it - all he sees is the vacuum of the screen.
We need better. Not more features. Not more power. Not more strength.
We need flex. We need imprecision. We need more human.
I have an idea for an interface… but I want to live my life instead.