7 Sep
2007
7 Sep
'07
9:22 a.m.
der Mouse wrote:
Second, the user interface is, at least in my
experience of calculators
and programs that can serve for similar purposes, substantially
better-designed for the task. Part of this is the physical
portability, but not all; a general-purpose keyboard is not the best
input device for calculator functionality.
I think older calculators actually do a better job than many modern
calculators.
With modern calculators, I feel like I do with modern DVD player
remote controls: way too many buttons, way too many suboptions
and menus to do what I actually want.
Bit-mapped LCD screens with their ability to do menus and option
lists are part of the evil. Go back to devices before them, and you
find the core functionality (and all functionality for that matter)
directly accessible. After them, everything is on a menu on a
submenu on a ... You'd think there'd be fewer buttons with all
the menus, but you'd be wrong!
Of course I am often frustrated with modern digital scopes.
Several of the better brands actually bring out onto knobs (well,
they're probably really shaft encoders now) all the traditional
analog knobs that should be on a scope. But other brands and
lesser models put everything behind a menu. Arggghhh!
As for the perfect user interface for VCR's, I think back to the
first home units: to record a program in advance, you turn the
channel knob to the channel you want, and turn some dials to
set the timers for start and stop times. Wonderful! Here we
are, decades later, and some of the low-end VCR's are actually
approaching this functionality with one or two record buttons.
But it's still not as good!
Tim.