Topic awaiting preservation: This is a cool approach at an UI... (Page 1 of 1)

http://www.dontclick.it/

No, it's not a joke, it's serious and works surprisingly well methinks
/D

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{ ?There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. - Jeremy S. Anderson" }-

Nice site (the Flash [ewww, vomit], anyways). Seems like all the time spent on that could've been spent working on touchscreens or voice command stuff.

The principle is AWESOME!

me likes mucho!

Aarh, it's tempting to click on some little texts like the "Go".

Anyway the no click at all concept shows its limit when you have to fill a form. I didn't managed to cycle through the fields with the Tab key. Does it come from FF1.0.4 or the Flash player beta 8 ? Honestly I doubt so.

I think it is cool some people actually try and break the (boring) rules of such a standard thing as navigation. At school I have always been told to create as standard navigations as possible, to not disturb people in their browsing.
Of course the purpose of a good navigation is to make it as discrete and handy as possible, which is not really true in this case as the navigation is actually the confusing (but nonetheless interesting) thing in this website; but it is perharps the best navigation I have ever seen before.
It is also very well thought, as you actually find your way and get used to this website pretty quickly. And for some reason (which I would find very difficult to achieve if I had to do such a thing), you (at least I) alsmot never "hit" or roll over a button you never meant to reach; there has probably been a huge reflexion about the layout, and this impresses me a lot on its own.

I find the concept very clever, reckon it is a great job.

It's a nice idea but there's not really anything wrong with clicking!

poi: the reason you couldn't tab to the fields was because you needed to click the flash for it to gain focus.

I really like the idea as well. I think there are better ways to do the whole design (since to access some things, you have to move THROUGH other things, which causes the thing you want to move) but I think with some work it could be a really useable interface. I have an idea I want to try with a webcam now...

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Spatial navigation by keyboard is nice.

I saw this a while ago, and I found that it was actually quite easy to not click. I didn't click once during my visit to the site.

An interesting exercise in thinking outside the box, so to speak.

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Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

An interesting excercise, sure.

I don't find a whole lot of particular value....I mean....we've been doing things on mouseover for quite some time, and in some pretty varied ways.

Applying it universally just doesn't seem all that exciting to me, personally.

Chalk it up as "neat-o"

It is interesting. It's almost the opposite of an interface I've been playing with for a while that uses an infra red remote to controll the computer. With the IR you end up with no keyboard or mouse, just clicks.

.



-- not necessarily stoned... just beautiful.

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I didn't click once

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...and I didn't blink once

Nice idea, but what's the point? Not a unique or entirely new idea, but taken to an impractical extreme. Imagine trying to apply that sort of navigation to everything - like, for instance, the Asylum?

Why aren't the slimies showing? Hello! Where are my slimies? Come out, come out, where ever you are!

Oh yeah - forgot to click! Dammit - what a nuisance...

Interesting site, interesting concept, but I like to click.

Ramasax
www.AmericanSerf.us

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White Hawk said:

Imagine trying to apply thatsort of navigation to everything - like, for instance, the Asylum?

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The problem with that argument is that the Asylum, nay, most of the web, was built from the ground up for clicking. You're comparing apples and oranges.

And what if we're not talking about mice here? What if the computer has a sensor that reads hand gestures or something?

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I don't think practical application is the goal at this point. I think the goal is to just do something different in order to break the constraints of convention. Think of it as a dialectic, if you will. Change is always resisted at first, but eventually it is accepted to some extent. Just because something is done a certain way now, that doesn't mean that it will always be done that way--or that it is necessarily the most efficient way.

Think of the interface pictured in the Minority Report. Did you see anyone click in that film? It was just a lot of hand movements--gestures, if you will. Let's say for the sake of argument that that's where the future of UI lies--how do you think we get from here to there? Through things like this no-click interface. It's not the final product, or even a practical application, just a step outside our current box. Further steps along the path to this (possibly) fictional future would involve other developments, like the disappearance of the mouse entirely.

[Edit: didn't read Iron Wallaby's post closely enough. That's exactly what I'm talking about.]

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Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

(Edited by Suho1004 on 07-27-2005 03:27)

Okay, I'm not arguing that - I just don't see the practical application now, and with the constraints and conventions of today. For one thing, most sites of comparatively simple and effective design (like the Asylum) would have to be heavily engineered and would involve a vast amount of design and coding to be as suited to their function.

That site is nice enough, yes, but with all that is achieved without clicking, doesn't it strike anyone else that clicking could add a whole new dimension to the interface? If all that navigation and interaction can be achieved without the click, imagine what could be achieved with a click! The possibilities are endless!

Quick, somebody patent the click!
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My little moment with the slimies was not a joke, by the way. After browsing through that site for a considerable time, I actually came back here, clicked and typed happily away for a while, then went to use a slimie (lazily, via the icons rather than typing)...

...I hovered over the "Insert Slimies" item for a good ten seconds or so before I remembered to click, and it amused me greatly. No word of a lie. Despite what I may have said, the very concept was immediately familiar and easily adopted.

Again, though, it is nothing that hasn't been done before - just taken to to a narrowly practicable extreme.

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And what if we're not talking about mice here? What if the computer has a sensor that reads hand gestures or something?

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I don't see how that applies, or how this interface relates or is in any applicable way revolutionary.

It still just fires on mouseover...it jsut applies it to everything instead of only certain things.

mouseover vs. clicking is a bit different form reading hand gestures...and even that is simply substituting the gesture for the click...


'a rose by any other name....'

Like I said above - neat, but....that's about all I get out of it.

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DL-44 said:

mouseover vs. clicking is a bit different form reading handgestures...and even that is simply substituting the gesture for theclick...

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Mouseover vs. clicking is the difference between a webcam for input and a 3D sensor array. It's much easier to track the 2D position of a hand (I could code up a demo in an hour if you wanted) than it is to track the 3D position and register a certain gesture for a click. Not to mention that doing a click with your hand in the air would not at all be natural, while just moving your hand would likely do a very reasonable job, especially for things such as media presentations (I can certainly imagine getting up and giving a presentation, and performing little hand gestures to move to various pieces of the presentation).

You're thinking in a "today" box. Hop out and dream.

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I'm not saying that the gesture would include an actual movement that specifically signifies the clicking motion.

I am saying that the gesture itself simply replaces the action that today is signified by a click. As does the mouseover in many cases.

So whether it is a click, a mouseover, or a hand gesture that fires the event, it is still just the computer detecting the event and responding accordingly.

This is the same concept of Windows ability to treat icons in the explore like icons in the web - requiring a single click rather than a double.
This isn't a change in techology, or a radical departure. It is simply a matter of altering the event that fires the action from on common event to another common event.

The technology to design a 'clickless' interface has been with us for a long time, and I just don't see using it in the extreme like this as being any closer to, or bringing any affiliation with, using hand gestures to control a computer interface.

I'm not thinking in a "today box".

I am thinking in a "this is nothing new" box

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DL-44 said:

I am thinking in a "this is nothing new" box

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True, and I honestly don't think this has any practical applications as is, but it's doing stuff like this that pushes things in other directions. Just because the technology/concepts aren't new doesn't mean that people have exhausted all possibilities. Think of it as an academic exercise.

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So whether it is a click, a mouseover, or a hand gesture that fires the event, it is still just the computer detecting the event and responding accordingly.

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You've just described every computer-user interface ever invented. Are you saying that as long as an interface follows this format it can't be considered new? At this point in time, I cannot imagine an interface that does not involve a "computer detecting the event and responding accordingly."

Then again, I'm not really sure what you're trying to say here. In fact, to be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say here either. Basically that it's an interesting academic exercise, and that academic exercises push things in new directions, regardless of whether the underlying concepts are new or not, I guess.

___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

Right. But in this case, we're talking about exisiting technology being used in an already existing manner. The 'academic exercise' aspect of this is what earns it the 'neat-o' status.

I just don't see it as pushing anything further in any important aspect.

It does help illustrate the fact that the current conventions we adhere to are not the only way things can be done, and for that, I'll say 'good show chaps'.

But this does not bring us any closer to actually having an interface that reads hand gestures, nor does it advance the technology that would be required to do so.

It may help someone think in that direction I suppose.

The point I make about the basic precept of computer interfaces was to clarify my earlier statement, which Iron Wallaby apparently mistook, and not to refute the site itself.

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In fact, to be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say here either.

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Well that's a relief, I didn't want to be the only one

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All I am saying is that, this use of this technology is nothing new - not simply that the techonology alone is not new.

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DL-44 said:

But this does not bring us any closer to actually having an interface that reads hand gestures, nor does it advance the technology that would be required to do so.

It may help someone think in that direction I suppose.

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Agreed on all points. What I think I was trying to say is not that the exercise necessarily advances the technology, but that it might help people look at things in ways they haven't looked at them before. "Progress" doesn't always have to mean actualy advancement or development. It can also mean looking at the same old problem in a new light.

So I think we're just voicing two different, but not necessarily conflicting, opinions about the project.

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Well that's a relief, I didn't want to be the only one

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I'll just ignore that little comment.

___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup