[LINK] more on interface design

[Kim Holburn]

On 2010/Jan/25, at 10:08 AM, Ivan Trundle wrote:

>
> On 25/01/2010, at 9:25 AM, Tom Worthington wrote:
>
>> Kim Holburn wrote:
>>> This article is a puff piece on M$ Surface ... large ugly table  
>>> with no
>>> place for your legs. ...
>>
>> The ABC was demonstrating one of these tabletop displays at the
>> "Realising Our Broadband Future" forum last December. Unfortunately I
>> could not see the point of it and no one from the ABC seemed to  
>> have any
>> idea of what it was for. They kept apologising that it was just  
>> running
>> a web page for selecting video and talked vaguely about other
>> applications it could have
>
> Check Microsoft's site on Surface technology. They think it will  
> appeal to hipsters who go to bars or eateries. There are a few  
> videos demonstrating this application. All very American in focus...
>
> I see it as a solution waiting for a problem. An approach favoured  
> by technology developers (and by throwing it out to a few sites - I  
> gather a cafe chain in the UK bought a few - they can work out what  
> it is really useful for, if anything).


Well, it's Microsoft trying to get it's name in an area where there is  
a lot of development without actually understanding what to do with it  
or creating anything people would actually want to use or could  
afford.  Apple is already marketing touch surfaces in a huge way and  
getting them to people's hands who would normally not even use a  
computer.

Oh yeah and the ReacTable synthesizer was made before 2007 and is  
similar to "surface" and I've seen opensource versions of it too.
<http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2007/08/bjork_reacTable>.

-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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