I'm sure many of us enjoy watching sci-fi movies and reading fiction which explores the future of UI design and technologies. I must admit feeling very inspired by the Iron Man concept of having the ability to design and produce advanced technologies in one's own home. To a large extent, web entrepreneurs can already do that, so it can be a reality now - with the right skills.
However, something to bear in mind with film and book depictions of technologies: They are not designed to work for real people. They are not designed to be feasible. They are not designed to be cost-effective. What they are designed to do is to have visual appeal, or to sound exciting. Bruce Sterling (an author of such books) makes this point clearly here: http://www.vimeo.com/769193 VR and gestural interfaces and anything 3D certainly do have some application in the real world, but more importantly, they look really good flashing up from a designer desk in a mansion in Malibu. =) -Jeff On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 9:58 AM, Evan K. Stone < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > It's highly coincidental that this topic came up, since I too was > greatly impressed by the user interface ideas presented in Iron Man. > Immediately afterward, that's all I could think and talk about. I'm glad > I'm not the only one who had that kind of reaction... > > [spoiler] > > I was intrigued with the manipulation of the suit design model in 3D > holographic space (and the trash can. nice touch.). I had this > anticipatory excitement come over me, since what appeared in Minority > Report became reality (to a some degree) in Perceptive Pixel, and > because just over the last week or so there have been discussions on > this list regarding free hand gestures, so perhaps we will see the > holographic 3D interactions in the not too distant future... very > exciting to think about. > > [/spoiler] > > Film sure can be great inspiration. > > Thanks for bringing up the topic! > > /// eks > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:discuss- > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael > Micheletti > > Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 9:31 AM > > To: Kim Bieler > > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] list > > Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Iron Man > > > > Warning, potential spoilers... > > > > The assembled teens at our house took us along and we all had a good > time. > > There were two thought-provoking things for me: > > > > 1. Most unrealistic moment in the film: when Jeff Bridges plugs the > stolen > > power supply into the Evil Robot and it works first off, without > needing to > > shim, rewire the connector, configure the IP address, etc. I laughed > aloud. > > Flying robots and 3-D talking holograms seem much more likely somehow. > > > > 2. Thing I was surprised and delighted by: the giant fighting robots > in the > > film could be operated by adults. Many of the mechas among my anime > > favorites can only, inexplicably, be operated by middle school > students. > > > > Michael Micheletti > > ________________________________________________________________ > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- Thanks, Jeff ________________________________________________________________________________ Jeff Axup, Ph.D. Principal Consultant, Mobile Community Design Consulting, San Diego Research: Mobile Group Research Methods, Social Networks, Group Usability E-mail: axup <at> userdesign.com Blog: http://mobilecommunitydesign.com Moblog: http://memeaddict.blogspot.com "Designers mine the raw bits of tomorrow. They shape them for the present day." - Bruce Sterling ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
