What happened to UX evolution? This is the @Xerox STAR, an evolution of the Alto, released 40 yrs ago in 1981. Windows, icons, menus, pointer (WIMP), cut/paste, move, drag, resize. It’s all there, just as in #Windows11. Did we merely change icons & aesthetics for 40 yrs? (1) 
UX evolution seems a great example of a search for something better getting stuck in a “local minima”; GUIs are great, but is this paradigm “optimal”? What is the text->GUI-like shift that comes next? Some say VR. But that’s not precise enough. Not universal enough. (2)
There will likely always be a need to see information, unaided, on a 2D surface. Aside from VR, there are speech or voice based interfaces (VUIs) like the popular Alexa, Siri agents. But these are clunky and nowhere close to a general-purpose computing user interface. (3)
What about 3D interfaces with physical particles? Like work done by @MIT’s Tangible Media Group on their inFORM display. Again, futuristic and cool but only a medium and not a general purpose interface paradigm to drive a computer. (4)
There are volumetric displays too, such as the one I covered in a piece on @Forbes. Interesting for specialized visualization, but presently, far, far from a medium that can enable broad interactions with a computer. (5) forbes.com/sites/amirhusa…
So, what comes next for user interfaces? I think the answers lie in concepts such as multi-modality, pan-medium integration, interfaces with memory and context, universality of input and concurrency of input. Thoughts on which to elaborate another day!
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
