User Interfaces
I am taking a Human Computer Interaction course this semester which I am really looking forward to! We were assigned a whole bunch of reading but one article that I really enjoyed was Jef Raskins comments on User Interfaces. It is an older article but many of the things that he pointed out really resonate with the issues that we still face today. In the article, one line really stands out for me which is “the union of two wrong systems does not make for a single, unified, correct one”. This reminds me of the idiom “two wrongs don’t make a right”, but is interesting to think about from a UI perspective. UI’s are changing all around us. Every major GUI OS is implementing some sort of convergence between the traditional desktop metaphor and touch screen capability with endless screens of icons and interesting gestures in lieu of menu driven interfaces. This is a very interesting time to be thinking about HCI as more and more devices in our world are becoming computerized.
Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.
Check out some more stuff to read down below.
Most popular posts this month
- SQLite DB Migrations with PRAGMA user_version
- Microblog
- How to Disable Wayland in Debian Testing
- Setting up ANTLR4 on Windows
- Scripting GNOME Terminal Tabs in Debian
Recent Favorite Blog Posts
This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.
- The contagion of fear from The Observation Deck
- The revolt of the reader from The Observation Deck
- Deeper dive: Were Touch Bar’s problems software rather than hardware? from Unsung
- Joining Cursor from Fatih Arslan
- Pluralistic: Digital sewer socialism (08 Aug 2026) from Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
- Pluralistic: Enshittification and Reverse Centaurs go global (29 Jul 2026) from Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
- AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making from Ludicity
- The default person from https://popagandhi.com/
Articles from blogs I follow around the net
“It Gives Great Demo”
There’s that famous video of Steve Jobs explaining why they don’t didn’t make touchscreen MacBooks: We thought about [a touch screen MacBook] years ago. We’ve done tons of user testing on this and it turns out it doesn’t work! Touch surfaces don’t want to...
via Jim Nielsen’s Blog November 4, 2026On the road for 8 months: Retrospective
My Trip around the world is now almost 8 months-in. Crazy to look back at the times and all the (36!) Countries I’ve visited, sometimes a day, sometimes almost 2-months! I have now turned 26, and am writing this blog on a phone in a café in Warsaw, Poland....
via Junwoo Hwang November 4, 2026The Trump Era is Collapsing and Big Tech is Officially On Notice
Cycles Hyped No More on November 4, 2026 The American electorate has spoken. And it’s not just MAGA Trumpism which has been repudiated, but the unseemly reign of douchebag techbroism. Cycles Hyped No More is a monthly column by Jared White where he takes a...
via The Internet Review November 4, 2026Generated by openring