On Mar 30, 2009, at 1:33 PM, Angel Marquez wrote:
Okay, so, how about this:
http://www.humanized.com/about/
I think right after I posted how I use UI's and CLI together in a
harmonious way that converges when and how to use both in an
effective manner someone posted a link to these guys. I'm not trying
to single you out humanoidz; but, modes cause misery written on a
computer, posted on the internet, to a blog makes me think you don't
get it.
Locked out modality where everything else on the screen is off limits
until the mode is dismissed causes misery.
But it is interesting that an entire product that is based in modality
like Ubiquity and Enso is somehow not "modal." Even as defined by the
creators. It's entirely modal. It maybe an ephemeral and dynamic type
of modality that is using context and source material in an attempt to
make the interaction more natural, but its still modal. The way we
changed the palettes to pop-up and stick (which became the basis for a
lot of the CS3 changes later on) in Photoshop all those years back was
something I termed "semi-modal" and is similar in concept as to what
Ubiquity uses, in that you lock keyboard and interaction into a thing
on the screen until that thing is dismissed. But it is still modal.
I think it's the nature of past modality and its uses that people want
to run away from it instead of embracing it and evolving it. For
example, choosing a tool -- any tool -- in Photoshop is a "mode." Is
that bad? Hardly... it's what makes the entire pixel editing model
work in the first place. Choosing tools is the entire basis for a lot
of desktop applications and that type of modality has its place. In
the analog world, picking up a hammer is similar to a mode, as opposed
to picking up a saw.
As for not getting it... I'm going to ignore that comment and the
manner you stated it.
Maybe it's just the way you are framing it or maybe....
My definition and use of modality comes from my work on desktop client
applications, where even then arguably people thought modality meant
"dialog boxes that lock you out of doing anything else on the
computer." In fact, modality simple means that there are modes. When
you choose a tool you are setting the mode for how all of your
interaction with the mouse and keyboard work.
--
Andrei Herasimchuk
Chief Design Officer, Involution Studios
innovating the digital world
e. [email protected]
c. +1 408 306 6422
________________________________________________________________
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
