Star Could Zoomable User Interfaces Be the Future?
Linked by David Adams on Sun 2nd Nov 2008 20:59 UTC, submitted by Dirk Sievert
Graphics, User Interfaces Oliver Hamann released a new version of his futuristic user environment called Eagle Mode. But the most interesting news is probably his project philosophy. There he lists pros and cons for replacing most of today's user interfaces by zoomable user interfaces. But unlike others, he don't want to replace the concept of desktop windows.
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chaosvoyager
Member since:
2005-07-06

There are users who cannot think outside of physical metaphors. If people have trouble with the idea that the same file (not a copy) can be in multiple directories (because it doesn't match the physical metaphor), they're likely to have trouble with the concept of recursive zoomable windows.

There are also developers who have trouble making good UIs for people other than those like themselves, and insist on using cross platform UI toolkits. UIs designed by such people will either take poor advantage of the opportunities provided by zooming, or most likely no advantage at all.

I have a strong suspicion that these kinds of people make up the vast majority of computer users.

There are also applications that have what is essentially their own UI metaphor which may not even match the OS they run on, and users have invested time in becoming proficient with them. Rewriting such applications to take deep advantage of zooming is likely to piss off current users, and visually change the application to the point where it's identified as another brand.

So while ZUIs (a name I despise and hope doesn't catch on) are a semantically stronger metaphor, I'm not sure how big a financial incentive there is to invest in them.

I certainly hope there's one.

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