Sunday, February 27, 2011

Why GUI to NUI? Why WIMP to post-WIMP? Do we have the seeds of a manifesto?!

This is a remix of one of my recent long-titled blog posts, "Why bother switching from GUI to NUI?", asked and answered by Josh Blake; my "2 cents"; Stevie B's Microsoft Research video, Marco Silva's NUI-HCI presentation, and links".   


I think we have the beginnings  of a GUI to NUI/ postWIMP manifesto here.


In Chapter 1 of Natural User Interfaces in .NET,  Josh Blake asks and answers a question posed by many people who have been under the spell of keyboard input and GUI/ WIMP interaction: 


Why bother switching from GUI to NUI?  The answer?  Read Chapter 1 (pdf) of the book - the chapter is free.


Here are a few of my personal reasons:  
1.  I want to buy the next version of the iPad or something like it.
2.  I want to buy a new large-screen Internet HD TV.
3.  I want to buy a Kinect.
4.  I do NOT want to interact with my new TV with a Sony remote.  Too many tiny buttons!


5. I do NOT want to interact with my new TV with a keyboard,  because it reminds me of...work.

6.  Most importantly: 

I want to design apps for the people I care about, and others with similar needs:
    My mom.  
    My grandson.
Moms and dads with kids in tow.
People with special needs and/or health concerns, and the people who care and guide them.
Knowledge sharers and (life-long) learners....

RELATED

"Smart" Interactive Display Research

 
View more presentations from Marco Silva

My YouTube Playlist:
"Natural user interfaces, gesture interaction, multi-touch, natural interaction, post WIMP examples and more... "


RELATED - and somewhat related   
Encyclopedia:  Human Computer Interaction, Interaction Design, User Experience, Information Architecture, Usability and More (Interaction-Design.org)

Josh Blake's Blog: Deconstructing the NUI    Book: Chapter 1 (pdf)  Free!
Blake.NUI
"Blake.NUI is a collection of helpful controls, utilities, and samples useful for multi-touch and NUI development with WPF, Surface, and Silverlight."
 (This is not an inclusive list.)


GUI to NUI Post-WIMP Manifesto:  TBA

1 comment:

Tim Smith said...

I love the fact that no protections being passed when using the Kinect with Open Source drivers. Without that I'm sure Microsoft would crush something thats truly amazing with the Kineect.

Its not everyday that a mainstream product becomes popular with a subculture like the Kinect is. I really think though that the most popular aspect about the Kinect will be the commercial applications though. As seen through the Roomba team and its new robot powered by two Kinects.

Onward and upwards and I hope the OpenKinect community keeps driving this forward!