I wrote this thing for a zine that never happened, then sat on it for two years, and anyway: Who wants to spend their Saturday morning reading about AR/VR HCI design?
Thread
Just for you: andrewschmidt.net/posts/the-conv…
The conviction we’re missing — Andrew Schmidt
I can’t get over touchscreens. I can’t get over the move they made; the pivot — not in a Silicon Valley sense, but in a basketball-player-pivoting-toward-a-shot-sense. Touchscreens really made a move, a full step beyond the mouse and cursor, a move so foundational that I can’t get over it. It’s ab
andrewschmidt.net
So poetic and insightful. Maybe it is tangential but I worked on some basics for pre-iPhone smart phones. One of the most important leaps was the understanding of touch targets.
Size and affordances and feedback. Pre iPhone interfaces were made with underlined links and drop down menus. I was amazed by how uninterested everyone was about the usability.
I had *some* pre-iPhone PDA — not a Palm or Handspring, but something similar. I do remember underlined words and having to guess a bit! One bit of old iPhone UI I dearly miss is the original back button. Very clearly a button, very clearly tappable, and very clearly “back.”
Physical usability was a part of that when phones became longer I assume. Meanwhile in early XPERIA phones, we defended the placement of back button on the bottom left. Glad we did. 😉