UI&us is about User Interface Design, User Experience design and the cognitive psychology behind design in general. It's written by Keith Lang, co-founder of Skitch; now a part of Evernote.  His views and opinions are his own and do not represent in any way the views or opinions of any company. 

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Entries in hardware (2)

Sunday
Sep062009

Auto Designers: Your Help Please

This is a question that has intrigued me for some time: why do car radios sometimes have identical dials for 'volume' and for 'tuning'. I find this a little frustrating. I've seen this more than once, so I'm guessing it's a design decision for some reason like the following:
a) It's pretty to have knobs the same
b) It's cheaper to manufacture identical parts
c) It encourages drivers to use the steering wheel controls
d) Who cares—it's not that hard to learn

What do you think?


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Sunday
Apr192009

Mind-reading Interfaces

The Neural Impulse Actuator, by OCZ Technology, lets you interact with the contraction of various face muscles. From Wikipedia:

The name Neural Impulse Actuator implies that the signals originate from some neuronal activity, however, what is actually captured is a mixture of muscle, skin and nerve activity including sympathetic and parasympathetic components that have to be summarized as biopotentials rather than pure neural signals.


So I'm a bit confused myself on whether to call this a 'mind-reading' interface or a 'muscle-reading' interface. Perhaps it's something in-between. What is clear is this genre of interface appears commercially viable for the mass market; sold first as hardcore gaming interface, later to infiltrate mainstream OS usage. This is a whole new world of Interaction Design.

A nice intro to what I'd call true 'mind-reading' technology in the following 60 Minutes story:


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